Methamphetamine
takes hold, never lets go

By Christie Pool
Your body knows methamphetamine is not good for it. When you see someone on methamphetamine, and their face, neck and arms have small sores all over them, that's the body's way of trying to expel the substance.
Sergeant Jesse Hambrick, Jr. with the Douglas County Sheriff's Drug and Gang Prevention Unit knows meth users. During interviews he has seen them pick at sores on their face until chunks of their skin come off. Inside that skin, Hambrick said, was methamphetamine. And if you're addicted to meth, you don't let any go to waste, he said.
"They pick it off and recycle it," Hambrick told a surprised audience Monday night at a seminar hosted by Pickens Family Connection as part of Red Ribbon Week.
Hambrick said the cycle of meth use must be broken to give both kids and adults using it a chance to recover. One way to help them break the cycle is to place them somewhere they don't have access to the vicious drug.
"You can visit them in jail or you can visit them at the grave site," he said. "I know no one wants to see their son or daughter or mother or father in jail, but you must break the cycle of use, and sometimes that's the only option."
Hambrick told those in attendance that local jails would not hold everyone in this county using methamphetamine. Hambrick travels around the state doing seminars to promote prevention, education and treatment options available to users.
The problem of meth use in the north Georgia area, including Pickens County, has been discussed at length throughout the pages of this newspaper and in other publications. Authorities say it's at epidemic proportion, and case managers with the Department of Family and Children Services report that 77 of 100 children in foster care are there because of drug-related issues. According to a presentation by DFACS officials Monday night, there has been a 200 percent rise in drug-related cases over the past five years.
On the street, meth is known by hundreds of different names including: Speed, Tina, Go Fast, Crank, Crystal, Ice, Shards, Glass, Bugger Sugar and many others.
"Meth is designed that from the very first time you take it, it starts taking away from you," Hambrick said.
He said law enforcement officials seize less than 10 percent of what's on the street. Atlanta, he said, supplies most of the eastern United States in methamphetamine and is second only to Los Angeles as the biggest hub in the nation.
"An eighth of a gram of meth to a new user can keep them up for 36 hours and costs $15. It lasts longer than crack cocaine and is cheaper," he said.
Hambrick said 90-95 percent of meth in the U.S. comes from outside the country and is run by huge Mexican cartels who are making money "hand over foot".


 "Meth is one of the most addictive substances known to man," Hambrick said. "Kids believe they can handle it and will say, 'I think I can try it once.' Well guess what, that doesn't happen. One in every four people who tries it becomes addicted for the rest of their life." Hambrick said meth is a central nervous system stimulant which causes the body to overproduce adrenaline and dopamine. The mass production of adrenaline makes meth users feel like their being watched. As the drug prompts the body to produce dopamine, over a short period of time the brain begins to lose its ability to be stimulated by things other than meth.
"If you use meth six years you can permanently affect your body's ability to ever sense pleasure," Hambrick said. "A meth user uses 40 years worth of dopamine in just two years. Your body never produces more dopamine, it recycles it, but meth addicts use theirs up." Hambrick said he interviewed a meth user once who asked him how he felt about the mailman. Hambrick responded, as most people would, and said he was glad he came every day and wished him no harm but didn't give him much thought. The meth user, Hambrick said, told him that was how he felt toward his family and others he once loved. He said his years of meth use had literally left him unable to have feelings toward anyone or anything.
"He lost his ability to show love because of that depletion of dopamine. Eventually meth users keep taking it just to feel normal."
Hambrick said the most common form of meth here is powder. It appears as a crystalline powder like salt and can be red, brown, tan, white or off-white. Ice, he said, looks like tiny pieces of broken glass and is found primarily in Atlanta.
"The easiest way to identify a methamphetamine addiction is physical deterioration," Hambrick said. "No other drug does this to your body."
Hambrick listed many indicators but cautioned that all do not have to be present for a meth addiction. "Look for clusters of these signs," he said.
Indicators: irritability and aggressive behavior, dehydration, anxiety & nervousness, auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoid delusions and feelings of plotting or conspiracy similar to schizophrenia, lack of focus and constant change of subject in conversations, profuse sweating, dilated pupils, staying up for days at a time with little or no rest, long periods of catatonic sleep, mood swings throughout the day, preferring dark rooms and avoiding sunlight, small sores on arms, neck and face (these are called Meth Mites, Crank Bugs or Speed Bumps), an overall rough or vagrant appearance, discolored or rotten teeth (Meth Mouth), pale or very dry skin, obsessive compulsive behavior, fast and constant speech and movement, increased sexuality and increased talk of sexual behavior and dramatic weight loss over a short period of time.
"I've never met a meth user I didn't want to tell to shut up," he said. "Meth brings you right to the edge and dangles you there."
As part of his job, Hambrick interviews scores and scores of people arrested for meth use. He recently talked with an addict who told him, "I'd rather live a life in misery with meth than face death without it."
If you have information about methamphetamine use in this county, call the drug-tip line at 1-888-328-METH.
Jasper United Methodist Church hosted Hambrick's presentation, titled Will You Survive the Ice Age, in the church sanctuary.