33rd / 424th District Courts

For Tara, now a 23-year-old Phoenix beautician, the seductive allure of methamphetamine took hold almost immediately. "The first line I ever did, I thought, 'My God, this is it. This is the answer to all the world's problems," she says. "It's the ultimate high.

But not for long.

Tara's $200-a-day habit eventually took her apartment, her job and her infant daughter, who was adopted by her parents. And as it almost always does, methamphetamine turned her euphoria into a free-fall nightmare.

But as meth users develop a tolerance for the drug, the euphoria is replaced by depression, and then intense paranoia, often made worse by meth-induced insomnia. One addict told a Phoenix doctor that he was being followed by FBI agents driving 50 black vehicles. Abusers become nervous and agitated, a condition described as "tweaking" that makes them prone to violence.

Those quotes (small "fair use" portion) come from a U.S. News & World Report article ... 1995!.

See A New Drug Sweeps the West (link June 2004) on www.keepmedia.com



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