Pubdate: Thu, 27 Oct 2005
Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
Copyright: 2005 Ledger-Enquirer
Contact:  http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/enquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237
Author: Chuck Williams And Kaffie Sledge, Staff Writers

SHATTERED BY METH

Methamphetamine Hits Families Harder, Faster Than Other Drugs

Turn to John 10:10 in the Bible.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to 
destroy... " the verse starts.

Jerry Sanders, a 51-year-old Lee County man, knows the Scripture 
well, but he doesn't wait for the end of the verse to be read.

He finishes it this way:

"I have seen all three of those."

Yes, he has.

The thief? Methamphetamine.

The illegal drug all but destroyed Sanders' family. One of his two 
sons, Jonathan Darryle Sanders, 28, is serving an 11-year sentence in 
federal prison in Jesup, Ga., for manufacturing methamphetamine.

After his son "made a bad connection" in the late 1990s, his twin 
daughters followed their big brother into the meth culture. They 
dropped out of high school and became uncontrollable. Today, one of 
those daughters is alive and off the drug, and the other is dead. She 
was killed in an automobile accident while going to see a friend 
jailed in north Alabama on methamphetamine charges.

Sanders and his wife are raising that daughter's 5-year-old girl.

To understand what the drug did to his family, let Sanders tell you 
about them before meth.

"We were living a fairy tale," Sanders said. "We had four children 
and they were all honor students. They were in the band. Darryle was 
the only boy in his class to make the superintendent's scholastic honors list."

Sanders said he had never heard of the drug before it hit his family.

"Before my son got involved, I didn't even know meth existed," Sanders said.

But he knows what it did to his family.

"The way I describe it, meth happens so suddenly," Sanders said. "It 
was like someone flew over my house and dropped a bomb."

It Destroys

Jim Vaughns, director of New Horizons' Intensive Substance Abuse Day 
Treatment program in Columbus, has heard stories like Sanders' before.

"The child becomes distant from the family," Vaughns said. "The 
family doesn't know what is going on."

That leads to bigger problems.

"The meth user throws off the harmony -- the balance -- in the 
family," Vaughns said. "The family is then thrown into turmoil and 
everybody has concerns about what's going on."

Some parents do know the child is on something , but don't know what 
to do or say.

That's what happened to Sanders.

He suspected something was going on in the shop behind his home, but 
he couldn't figure it out.

"I had my suspicion," Sanders said. "I would set the alarm for 2 and 
3 in the morning. I would try and catch him doing something. I would 
stand outside the shop. All I heard was tales of hunting and fishing. 
He was very crafty."

After years of retrospection, Sanders still can't come up with the 
moment he discovered his son was on meth.

"There was never a clear, defining moment where I could say my son 
was on drugs," Sanders said. "I am analytical by nature. He's always 
been high energy. He's like a bottle rocket, whichever direction he 
is aimed when you light his fuse, that is the direction he would go 
just as fast as he can."

Darryle Sanders was aimed for trouble.

"This is the time the parents need to get involved in programs -- 
such as New Horizons has to offer -- to help them work through these 
issues," he said. "Not only the child who has the problem, but also 
the family members who have problems -- because it is very destructive."

Darryle Sanders' drug problem quickly infiltrated the rest of the family.

"He was their hero," Jerry Sanders said of his son's relationship 
with the twin sisters. "When Darryle made a bad connection, 
unfortunately his sisters followed suit."

Hard To Treat

Addicts and those trying to help them agree that people hooked on 
meth can't be helped until they reach the bottom.

That is what happened to Brenda Tapley, 25, of Valley.

At times, her mother had tried to force her into rehab and she 
resisted. Once, she walked out of St. Francis Hospital after telling 
those trying to help her that "they were stupid" to think she was on drugs.

When she hit bottom, her mother -- Kathy McClellan, 45, of Valley, 
Ala. -- was there to help, even after Brenda had stolen from her 
parents to support her habit.

Tapley said meth alters your perspective of right and wrong.

"It is me and mine and I am going to get mine, even if I have to take 
yours," Tapley said. "It didn't matter -- you would rob your best friend."

With the help of her mother and her church, The Bridge Assembly of 
God in Beulah, Ala., Tapley was ushered into a faith-based 90-day 
treatment program, which she recently completed.

Lt. Heath Taylor, a veteran narcotics officer with the Russell County 
Sheriff's Department, says it is a myth that people can't beat meth.

"I have seen people get off meth," he said. "It is not a drug that 
can't be beat."

But it isn't easy.

"Once you get hooked, it is very difficult to overcome," said Phenix 
City criminal defense attorney Jeremy Armstrong. "I have had clients 
who just can't overcome it. If they have been using for a significant 
time, they are going to have to have in-house treatment. It is not 
something you can do in a 28-day treatment period."

Suzi Kahler is clinical director for House of T.I.M.E., a Columbus 
residential drug-treatment program for women.

"Meth abusers have been described by some treatment providers as the 
hardest to treat of all drug users," Kahler said. "Some people never 
recover and remain dissatisfied with life due to permanent brain damage."

Kahler said that the meth addict needs help to come clean.

"Willpower alone will not prevent relapse in meth addiction," Kahler said.

She has noticed a scary trend.

Some of the women at the House of T.I.M.E are addicted to alcohol or 
crack, but their children are using meth.

Why?

"It's cheap," Kahler said. "It's easy to make."

Family Impact

Andrea Amerson, community marketing representative for Bradford 
Health Services, leads community programs on meth education.

She said the thing that touches her the most is watching the impact 
methamphetamine has on the entire family.

"In my opinion, the reason that meth is different from other drugs is 
the way it attacks the family -- not only the person who is addicted 
to methamphetamine, but the entire family suffers pretty much 
immediately," Amerson said. "Meth turns your life inside out; it 
turns the person inside out. You're not going to want to be around 
your family."

Meth's impact on a family is different from that of other drugs.

"Alcohol is very different," Amerson said. "You want to be with your 
family, you want to be social, even with crack cocaine -- because the 
high does not last as long as with meth. While on crack there is a 
period when the person still wants to go back to family.

"With meth, you distance yourself from all of that."

You don't have to tell Sanders what methamphetamine can do to a 
family. He knows all too well.

"I had a secretary where I used to work say, 'Jerry, I know you. If 
this could happen to you, it could happen to anybody,' " Sanders said.
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