That Was Methamphetamine I Just Smoked?

Methamphetamine is a very dangerous, illegal drug that can cause short and long term problems in the brain and problems with emotions. It is very addictive, and people using this drug can have hallucinations and delusions and become paranoid and violent. The physical aspects of long-term addiction are tooth decay, weight loss, and sores where the meth user has picked at his/herself to get rid of the imaginary bugs crawling on them. When someone is addicted to meth, they only care about getting high.

Crystal methamphetamine is smoked, injected or sometimes snorted. People are easily addicted because it gives them a false sense of happiness from the first time they use it, but soon they need more and more and then the drug begins to destroy their physical health. I would like to share a story with you about my experience with a methamphetamine user.

My roommate and myself moved to a small two bedroom trailer last spring, and were introduced to the "maintenance man" who lived next door. He appeared to have no wife but often had a daughter come and stay with him and his son visited almost every day. One day when my roommate, Barbara, and I were outside working in the garden, he stopped by, shoved a bag of marijuana into my hand and said nothing. He simply turned and went back to his trailer. We thought that was odd, but some people are just odd.

As the spring turned to summer we all became casual friends. He would invite us over to eat and play some dice games and I hated going there because his house was disgustingly dirty. My roommate went more often than I did and I stayed home with the dogs. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable around the man next door. Then, the worst thing that could happen did happen. I enrolled in a medicare advantage plan and they ended up taking almost $200 a month out of my check. At that point, we could no longer afford to live where we were so we spoke to the landlord and he agreed to let us out of our lease, but he then rented the place so we had a week to find a new place and move. The man next door told us we could each rent a room from him for $150 per month so we could save up enough to get a new place. I didn't like the idea, but we didn't have a choice, especially considering it was right before Thanksgiving we found out about all of this. With the Holidays coming up we had a slim chance of finding a place.

It was cold, windy and snowing when we began the process of moving our stuff into his trailer and shed. He insisted we store our things in the shed because he felt it was crazy to pay money to store things if we were trying to save money, but his shed was cold, drafty and wet. However, we went along to avoid an issue. We were almost moved in when he told us we would also be paying the electric, water, sewer and trash. We were stuck at that point and had no choice but to agree.

Things were okay for maybe a week, but he began smoking a lot of methamphetamine around me and practically yelling at me if I wouldn't join him. He brought a meth pipe and a torch into my bedroom and told me that was my pipe and he wanted me to be able to smoke when I wanted. This really worried me because it is an illegal drug and if he were to get arrested for it, I would look guilty as well and didn't plan to go to jail.

He would not allow us to put up a Christmas tree or have a clock in the living room, and the house was always dark and dirty. His friends would come over at all hours of the night and wake me up from a dead sleep hooting and laughing in the living room. I had no privacy and he got angry if I didn't come out of my room and join in, but I am an introvert and all of this was very upsetting to me.

I began to feel ill, had a fever and chills and wanted to sleep all the time. I didn't know it then but I had walking pneumonia. I spent most of my time sleeping and in my room having horrible nightmares about the devil. I know when a person has repeated nightmares it means they are in danger somehow in their waking life, so I began to search for a new place to live and luckily found one. They said we could move in the first week of January.

Things went from bad to worse. He expected us to not only pay all the bills but to do all the housework, dishes, etc. We spent a day doing laundry and he informed me that from that point on we could only do two loads a week and the rest we had to take to the laundromat. I couldn't understand why if we were paying for the electric and water, but I didn't want to start anything with him. He got very angry one night because I put ice in my dogs water so I didn't have to fill it so many times a night. He told me to get in my room and stay there, as though I were some child who did something wrong.

We had only been there three weeks and he came to my door on Christmas eve and told me we could have one more month and then had to go because it wasn't working out for him. I said nothing, and the next thing I knew he was loading the dishes from the sink into a box, took them outside and threw them away. He said he didn't do dishes and I guess we didn't get to them soon enough for him. He then began washing his walls.

My oldest son came to visit me for Christmas in spite of me telling him this wasn't a good year, and he and the man next door got into a physical altercation. I ran to them and placed myself between them to stop things, and I have never been more upset in my life. He had hit my son in the face with his fist because he'd asked what was up with the dishes.

We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in a motel eating pizza but it was better than being there. A lot of people helped us out, including my son, but as a mother I felt horrible that I had sunk so low in life that I had to rent a room from a drug abuser and couldn't offer him a decent place to spend Christmas.

Things are better now that we are once again in our own place, and I will never be that stupid and trusting again.

Methamphetamine is a bad drug and it will kill you, but before it does it will make you psychotic, paranoid, and plain miserable. That first feeling of euphoria is not worth it in the long run, and my recommendation is to stick with marijuana which is actually not a drug but an herb that has many healing and pain relieving qualities. Just say no.