By Cassandra 'Sandy' Frost
2-16-6
It's a beautiful Washington State day in the foothills of Mt. Rainer. The raccoons have come, been fed and are now gone. The birds are singing in our cherry tree. The squirrels are running around and eating bits of bread I've put out for them on the fence. My cats are dozing on the warm concrete porch slab. I'm writing this on our back porch in the comforting afternoon sun.
This is the fourth article in a series that describes how my 21 year old daughter, Rachel, rescued her best friend, Lindsey, from meth addiction. They came up last night for a visit and they left a few hours ago.
Yesterday's top story was how they had been heading up here to surprise us last week. Rachel was driving along about 75mph up I-5 just north of Portland and her front left wheel broke away from the axle. The wheel flew through the two left hand lanes of 3pm Wednesday traffic without hitting anyone as Rachel and Lindsey skidded her Honda down the freeway and onto the shoulder.
"Mom, physics and logic tell me that the car should have skidded into the traffic," Rachel said. "We should have flipped and spun around."
Instead, as terrified Lindsey screamed "Hold it steady, steady" to Rachel, she held the wheel tight and guided the car to the shoulder.
"Mom," she said. "I felt all our angels pick up the car and we floated to the side of the road."
Makes sense to me as Rachel is literally a life-saver.
Seven months ago in August, Rachel got a call from Lindsey's Mom because she'd taken off with her car and had been gone for a few days, presumably on a "meth run." I was staying with Rachel in her studio in Portland for about six months as I was waited for Keith, my husband, to come back from Guam. I sat on my bed and listened while Rachel began calling her pals to find Lindsey in Medford, Oregon. In about twenty minutes, Lindsey called. She was crying and told Rachel she'd been doing meth. Rachel hung up the phone packed some things, hopped in the car and drove five hours from the northern end of Oregon, Portland, to sixteen miles north of the California border, Medford, to get her best friend.
Lindsey and Rachel had used methamphetamine when they were in high school and at one point, vowed to never do it again. Rachel has stayed off it but Lindsey slipped and had been doing it for the past month and a half and had been up for the last 11 days straight.
Lindsey had been busted twice a few weeks prior and was charged with two felony counts of PCS which is possession of a controlled substance. Rachel picked up Lindsey who abandoned an entire household in her apartment. They drove to see her Mom to tell her that Lindsey was going up to Portland to stay with us so she could clean up.
We all lived in Rachel's tiny studio and with the unlikely help of Lindsey's bird who gave us something else to focus on, we helped her detox. She slept for the most of a week and coughed 24/7. When she woke up, she ate like a ravenous animal and smoked like a chimney.
But that was ok.
She was coming off the today's most dangerous and addictive street drug.
"Mom," Rachel said. "I think I was saved from dying in the wreck," Rachel said. Lindsey agreed. I think Rachel got a reprieve from death because she's committed to saving lives. She is unselfish, giving and caring and for the past seven months has given Lindsey a place to live, fed her, helped her get a job and supported her while she's stayed clean.
After Keith got stateside last August, I moved from Rachel's to Tacoma, Washington. Lindsey had to take the Greyhound bus, instead of having Rachel or I drive her, back and forth from Portland to Medford so she could take care of her legal obligations. On September 7, which was Rachel's 21st birthday, she was in court for the first time as she was charged with two felony counts of PCS. She applied for and got the help of a court appointed lawyer who helped her plead guilty. The judge dropped one charge and sentenced Lindsey to 18 months probation, fined her and gave her 40 hours of community service. The judge agreed to let her meet these obligations up in Multnomah County, where Portland is located.
She is on unsupervised probation as her probation officer has an 800 parolee caseload.
Meth is a huge problem and at least in Jackson County Oregon, is chewing up 80% of all the judiciary and criminal justice system resources.
Just how bad is the problem?
Two town hall meetings to discuss methamphetamine abuse in southwest Oregon were recently held on February 11 and 12. They were organized by 2nd Congressional District Rep. Greg Walden.
"The drug is being abused at a growing rate throughout the vast congressional district that includes all of Oregon east of the Cascade Range as well as most of Jackson and Josephine counties," he said.
According to Walden, in 2004, the district, with 20 percent of the state's population, had 35 percent of total meth lab busts in Oregon.
"With a combined total of 34 meth lab seizures in 2004 alone, both Jackson and Josephine counties find themselves afflicted by the growing scourge of methamphetamine," Walden said in a prepared statement. "It is not just those who use meth that pay a high price - we all pay for the ramifications of this toxic substance."
Joining Walden at the sessions were Scott Burns, deputy director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Craig Campbell, senior policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski; and Kayleen Deathridge, staff member for Oregon Partnership and a member of the Governor's Methamphetamine Task Force.
According to a February 12 article in the Mail Tribune by Jack Moran:
"Before joining community leaders Friday at a meeting in Medford covering methamphetamine use and production in Oregon, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden sent a staffer to the supermarket to buy a few everyday products used to manufacture the destructive drug. "Can you imagine saying, 'I need some Drano so I can snort it?'" Walden asked the crowd of about 200 that gathered at the Medford City Council chambers for the afternoon meeting.
"This stuff is toxic and corrosive," he said. "(Methamphetamine) destroys the mind. ... It ruins lives and ruins families."
Walden used a bottle of Drano, some isopropyl alcohol and other meth-making ingredients to make the point that anyone could go home and make a batch of the stimulant after a single trip to the store.
"No one (at the supermarket) questioned it" when the items were purchased, he said. He added that a store clerk apologized when asking the aide for identification before handing over a box of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine's main ingredient."
I forgot to mention that the second time Lindsey was busted, the police cuffed her and took her down to the station where she was questioned to see if she knew about some recent bank robberies. Lindsey knew one of the detectives who asked how Lindsey's cousin was. He was in prison for impersonating a law enforcement officer and taking money from people's cars because of his own drug problems
Medford is a prime example of a small town with overwhelming meth problems that are literally breaking the bank. Not only are the courts full of cases, the social agencies are full of children who are taken into custody as their parents are arrested and jailed.
There are very serious environmental pollution issues as well. Each pound of methamphetamine produced leaves behind five or six pounds of toxic waste. Methamphetamine cooks often pour leftover chemicals and by-product sludge down drains in nearby plumbing, down storm drains, or directly onto the ground. Chlorinated solvents and other toxic by-products used to make methamphetamine pose long-term hazards because they can persist in soil and groundwater for years. Cleanup costs are sky-high because solvent-contaminated soil usually must be burned. It costs from $5,000 to $100,000 to clean up one meth lab.
Today, Lindsey has a full time job at a local convenience store and has been clean for seven months. She admitted to me today that there are times she wants to use again because she's gained 50 pounds and the meth kept her skinny.
"You're beautiful as you are, sweetheart," I assured her.
Then Lindsey, Rachel and I watched in our living room mirror as we had a group hug before they drove back to their lives in Portland.
All we can really do in ANY situation like this, whether it's Lindsey's situation or helping someone come off alcohol and pill abuse and bulimia and compulsive shopping, as I am helping my sister do for a friend of hers, is draw from our own experience, strength and hope as we gratefully and unselfishly reach out to help others as someone did for us when we needed it.
_____
Cassandra "Sandy" Frost is an award winning e-journalist and author of "The Cassandra Frost Collection" which will be published this spring by Dandelion Books.
Her blog can be read at: http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/
2-16-6
It's a beautiful Washington State day in the foothills of Mt. Rainer. The raccoons have come, been fed and are now gone. The birds are singing in our cherry tree. The squirrels are running around and eating bits of bread I've put out for them on the fence. My cats are dozing on the warm concrete porch slab. I'm writing this on our back porch in the comforting afternoon sun.
This is the fourth article in a series that describes how my 21 year old daughter, Rachel, rescued her best friend, Lindsey, from meth addiction. They came up last night for a visit and they left a few hours ago.
Yesterday's top story was how they had been heading up here to surprise us last week. Rachel was driving along about 75mph up I-5 just north of Portland and her front left wheel broke away from the axle. The wheel flew through the two left hand lanes of 3pm Wednesday traffic without hitting anyone as Rachel and Lindsey skidded her Honda down the freeway and onto the shoulder.
"Mom, physics and logic tell me that the car should have skidded into the traffic," Rachel said. "We should have flipped and spun around."
Instead, as terrified Lindsey screamed "Hold it steady, steady" to Rachel, she held the wheel tight and guided the car to the shoulder.
"Mom," she said. "I felt all our angels pick up the car and we floated to the side of the road."
Makes sense to me as Rachel is literally a life-saver.
Seven months ago in August, Rachel got a call from Lindsey's Mom because she'd taken off with her car and had been gone for a few days, presumably on a "meth run." I was staying with Rachel in her studio in Portland for about six months as I was waited for Keith, my husband, to come back from Guam. I sat on my bed and listened while Rachel began calling her pals to find Lindsey in Medford, Oregon. In about twenty minutes, Lindsey called. She was crying and told Rachel she'd been doing meth. Rachel hung up the phone packed some things, hopped in the car and drove five hours from the northern end of Oregon, Portland, to sixteen miles north of the California border, Medford, to get her best friend.
Lindsey and Rachel had used methamphetamine when they were in high school and at one point, vowed to never do it again. Rachel has stayed off it but Lindsey slipped and had been doing it for the past month and a half and had been up for the last 11 days straight.
Lindsey had been busted twice a few weeks prior and was charged with two felony counts of PCS which is possession of a controlled substance. Rachel picked up Lindsey who abandoned an entire household in her apartment. They drove to see her Mom to tell her that Lindsey was going up to Portland to stay with us so she could clean up.
We all lived in Rachel's tiny studio and with the unlikely help of Lindsey's bird who gave us something else to focus on, we helped her detox. She slept for the most of a week and coughed 24/7. When she woke up, she ate like a ravenous animal and smoked like a chimney.
But that was ok.
She was coming off the today's most dangerous and addictive street drug.
"Mom," Rachel said. "I think I was saved from dying in the wreck," Rachel said. Lindsey agreed. I think Rachel got a reprieve from death because she's committed to saving lives. She is unselfish, giving and caring and for the past seven months has given Lindsey a place to live, fed her, helped her get a job and supported her while she's stayed clean.
After Keith got stateside last August, I moved from Rachel's to Tacoma, Washington. Lindsey had to take the Greyhound bus, instead of having Rachel or I drive her, back and forth from Portland to Medford so she could take care of her legal obligations. On September 7, which was Rachel's 21st birthday, she was in court for the first time as she was charged with two felony counts of PCS. She applied for and got the help of a court appointed lawyer who helped her plead guilty. The judge dropped one charge and sentenced Lindsey to 18 months probation, fined her and gave her 40 hours of community service. The judge agreed to let her meet these obligations up in Multnomah County, where Portland is located.
She is on unsupervised probation as her probation officer has an 800 parolee caseload.
Meth is a huge problem and at least in Jackson County Oregon, is chewing up 80% of all the judiciary and criminal justice system resources.
Just how bad is the problem?
Two town hall meetings to discuss methamphetamine abuse in southwest Oregon were recently held on February 11 and 12. They were organized by 2nd Congressional District Rep. Greg Walden.
"The drug is being abused at a growing rate throughout the vast congressional district that includes all of Oregon east of the Cascade Range as well as most of Jackson and Josephine counties," he said.
According to Walden, in 2004, the district, with 20 percent of the state's population, had 35 percent of total meth lab busts in Oregon.
"With a combined total of 34 meth lab seizures in 2004 alone, both Jackson and Josephine counties find themselves afflicted by the growing scourge of methamphetamine," Walden said in a prepared statement. "It is not just those who use meth that pay a high price - we all pay for the ramifications of this toxic substance."
Joining Walden at the sessions were Scott Burns, deputy director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Craig Campbell, senior policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski; and Kayleen Deathridge, staff member for Oregon Partnership and a member of the Governor's Methamphetamine Task Force.
According to a February 12 article in the Mail Tribune by Jack Moran:
"Before joining community leaders Friday at a meeting in Medford covering methamphetamine use and production in Oregon, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden sent a staffer to the supermarket to buy a few everyday products used to manufacture the destructive drug. "Can you imagine saying, 'I need some Drano so I can snort it?'" Walden asked the crowd of about 200 that gathered at the Medford City Council chambers for the afternoon meeting.
"This stuff is toxic and corrosive," he said. "(Methamphetamine) destroys the mind. ... It ruins lives and ruins families."
Walden used a bottle of Drano, some isopropyl alcohol and other meth-making ingredients to make the point that anyone could go home and make a batch of the stimulant after a single trip to the store.
"No one (at the supermarket) questioned it" when the items were purchased, he said. He added that a store clerk apologized when asking the aide for identification before handing over a box of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine's main ingredient."
I forgot to mention that the second time Lindsey was busted, the police cuffed her and took her down to the station where she was questioned to see if she knew about some recent bank robberies. Lindsey knew one of the detectives who asked how Lindsey's cousin was. He was in prison for impersonating a law enforcement officer and taking money from people's cars because of his own drug problems
Medford is a prime example of a small town with overwhelming meth problems that are literally breaking the bank. Not only are the courts full of cases, the social agencies are full of children who are taken into custody as their parents are arrested and jailed.
There are very serious environmental pollution issues as well. Each pound of methamphetamine produced leaves behind five or six pounds of toxic waste. Methamphetamine cooks often pour leftover chemicals and by-product sludge down drains in nearby plumbing, down storm drains, or directly onto the ground. Chlorinated solvents and other toxic by-products used to make methamphetamine pose long-term hazards because they can persist in soil and groundwater for years. Cleanup costs are sky-high because solvent-contaminated soil usually must be burned. It costs from $5,000 to $100,000 to clean up one meth lab.
Today, Lindsey has a full time job at a local convenience store and has been clean for seven months. She admitted to me today that there are times she wants to use again because she's gained 50 pounds and the meth kept her skinny.
"You're beautiful as you are, sweetheart," I assured her.
Then Lindsey, Rachel and I watched in our living room mirror as we had a group hug before they drove back to their lives in Portland.
All we can really do in ANY situation like this, whether it's Lindsey's situation or helping someone come off alcohol and pill abuse and bulimia and compulsive shopping, as I am helping my sister do for a friend of hers, is draw from our own experience, strength and hope as we gratefully and unselfishly reach out to help others as someone did for us when we needed it.
_____
Cassandra "Sandy" Frost is an award winning e-journalist and author of "The Cassandra Frost Collection" which will be published this spring by Dandelion Books.
Her blog can be read at: http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/
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