Track, baseball, basketball, band, debate team, yearbook staff ? Chris was a 6-foot, 4-inch tall, All-American, blond-haired, blue-eyed boy when we met our junior year in high school.
He lived in a ranch-style house in the suburbs. His father was the director of probation, his mother a legal secretary and his older brother was attending an Ivy League college, studying law.
We went to his house to do homework and the family beagle greeted us inside of the gate. I envisioned Ward and June sitting at their dining table with Wally and the Beaver, it was that perfect.
Chris was my friend.
He carried me off of the stage at graduation as we tossed the mortar boards into the air. The future was bright that day.
Shortly after I moved away and we didn”t really stay in contact.
Fast forward five years to a party with my high school friends. Chris was there and I was excited to see him. My rose-colored glasses prevented me from realizing how bad he looked. He was drinking, a lot. In school he didn”t drink or do drugs. That changed.
The next five years desperate, depressing phone calls from Chris filled my days.
Each time I saw him he looked worse. He was skinny and pale.
Eventually his parents sent him to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Alaska, so he could “change his playground and his playmates.” He was gone for about six months and it worked. He put on weight, went to the gym, got a great job, bought a house and even a boat. I still have a photo of him standing in front of that boat smiling and looking like his old self.
A year later, for unknown reasons, he got back into drugs.
“I feel like killing myself, Mandy,” he said on the phone.
He sold or lost everything but his car. I wanted to help him. I tried so many times before. That vibrant, healthy person I once knew was vapor, replaced by a junkie.
“Well, you are killing yourself, Chris,” I said, frustrated. “You”re just doing it really slowly. You”re also killing your family and friends.”
That was the last time I talked to Chris, 19 years ago. I don”t know if he”s dead or alive.
I still feel badly about that. I”m a loyal friend. But I didn”t know that guy. Methamphetamine turns your friends into strangers.
Long-term use of meth may lead to malnutrition, skin disorders, ulcers and diseases resulting from vitamin deficiencies, lack of sleep, weight loss, lung and heart disease, hallucinations, disorganized lifestyle, permanent psychological problems, poor coping abilities, disturbance of personality development, lowered resistance to illnesses and brain damage.
Many users will become paranoid, violent and display signs of mental illness that is also known as drug-induced psychosis.
We see many meth addicts in Lake County and we are far from alone.
According to an article in the March 24 Economist, “Methed up: Attempts to prohibit the drug have caused a cottage industry to scale up,” meth production all over the world is at an all-time high.
A ranch south of the city of Guadalajara, Mexico was the site of one of the biggest drug busts in history, with 15 tons of methamphetamine, seven tons of chemicals used to make it and a laboratory.
I suspect the drug would not be produced at such a rapid rate if the demand was absent.
According to the article, “The cheap and potent meth they supply now provides some three-quarters of the drug consumed in America. Seizures at the border rose from 1.3 tons in 2001 to 4.5 tons by the end of the decade. In 2008 the Mexican authorities identified 21 labs. In 2009 they found 191.”
The statistics in other countries and on other continents is just as staggering with half of all people seeking drug treatment in Japan having problems with meth and in South Korea the proportion is more than 90 percent.
The United Nations reported that arrests related to meth more than tripled between 2004 and 2009 in Southeast Asia.
Meth production centered in the Czech Republic is booming with police shutting down approximately 400 labs each year.
Methamphetamine trafficking and abuse in the United States has spiked substantially in the last five years. The large-scale production of methamphetamine is centered in California.
Officials say statistics may actually understate the problems.
So where did this devil”s drug come from?
Methamphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 in Germany, but nothing was done with it until the 1920s, when it was prescribed for depression and decongestion.
The drug reached popularity during World War II. It was used to keep the troops in combat awake, agitated and violent.
During the Vietnam War American soldiers used more than the rest of the world did during World War II.
People are losing their children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, parents and friends.
Users are losing their family members, homes, jobs, sensibility, health and their minds.
Whenever I hear the song “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind I think of Chris and grieve the demise of my friend.
The following lyrics in particular strike a nerve:
“I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend. You could cut ties with all the lies, that you”ve been living in … The angry boy, a bit too insane, icing over a secret pain. You know you don”t belong. You”re the first to fight. You”re way too loud. You”re the flash of light on a burial shroud. I know something”s wrong … Well he”s on the table and he”s gone to code and I do not think anyone knows what they are doing here. And your friends have left, you”ve been dismissed. I never thought it would come to this. Everyone”s got to face down the demons. Maybe today you can put the past away …”
Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor at Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32. Follow on Twitter @mandyfeder1.
