Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Methamphetamine...

For years I have watched my sister suffer from this addiction without really knowing it was an addiction. Nor did I know the impact it has on society today. Call me ignorant, maybe I just chose to not see it around myself. I even know of a time when I sat healthy and very pregnant...about to pee myself laughing with my mother at people who were trying to play speed bingo while tweeking.

I dont know. I would prefer to think I felt it just did not exist. That it was something similar to forgetting to wash your hair in the shower or throw out the grinds from the coffee pot.

But I just finished watching two documentaries I happened to see on the shelf at a local movie place.

One was called "American Meth" which was amazing yet terrifying. To the soothing voice of Val Kilmer I saw images of my favorite city in the world, Portland Oregon. I saw the people sleeping outside the Mission on Burnside. I saw people playing hackey sack in front of my favorite fountain, Salmon Springs on the waterfront. I even teared up when I realized they were talking to Meth addicts right there in Pioneer Square. I went to my first concert there, I remember seeing Brian Setzer Orchestra up close and personal. That is when the tears started to fall. I learned first hand how these people feel. And I realized something about my sister.

The second one I watched was titled "Americas' Most Dangerous Drug". My Father would be proud of me if he knew I was watching a National Geographic Special. And then there it was again. The tears, my favorite city. I was totally caught of guard when an ex-boyfriend of mine I had lost contact with many years ago was featured in this documentary. I had met him thousands of years ago it seems at the Copper Penny. He was clean faced, healthy and handsome as when I had dated him. But the story he told and the pictures they showed surprised me. Never in a million years would I have ever expected to see that happen to him. And I learned more about my sister.

Has this become such an epidemic that documentaries are being made about it? I remember seeing a documentary once on Adolph Hitler...and in that it spoke about how he was the very first documented case of Methamphetamine use. He had Parkinsons, and his personal Dr. made it for him to keep him sharp and alert. And to ward off the tremors that ravished his body. It would explain why he would keep one hand tucked in. So no one else knew his secret.

Our lives are so short and precious as it is, why do we turn to something that will destroy us in the blink of an eye? Do we not see the beauty and purity in the children of this world? Can we not see past our own pain and notice the damage we are causing to those around us?

Is mankind this weak?

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