Pubdate: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html Note: This series also ran in the Modesto Bee and the Sacramento Bee A Special Report by the McClatchy Company's California Newspapers with a special website: http://www.methvalley.com/ Also: There is an index with links at the end of this item. A Madness Called Meth: PROLOGUE CALIFORNIA'S SOCIAL, MEDICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE The little girl is 4 and wise beyond her years. She tugs on the woman's bullet-proof vest. "I know what you came for," she whispers. Down the hallway in her mother's bedroom, she opens the top drawer of a bureau to display baggies of methamphetamine, scales, homemade pipes used to smoke the drug, and account books that document sales. She describes in detail how her mother had smoked a pipe of crank that morning and explains that she'd been sleeping with her mommy for several days because the dog had pooped in her bed and nobody had bothered to clean it up. "People come to visit Mommy, and they bring money. It's green, and it has a two and a zero," she says. "She gives them little baggies with white stuff." Then the little girl with the long, brown ponytail and cherubic smile goes off with a social worker to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, before heading to the hospital for a complete physical. Eventually, she will live the rest of her childhood with strangers. Her mother will end up in jail. Or dead. SERIES INDEX: Introduction http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1500/a07.html Chapter 1: The Family Who Cranks Together http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1501/a08.html Chapter 2: Uncle Fester http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1502/a02.html Chapter 3: Father Time http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1501/a07.html Chapter 4: Beavis, Butt-Head And The Making Of Meth http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1502/a01.html Chapter 5: Meth And The Drug Lords http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1501.a10.html Chapter 5b: Walking A Fine Line http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1502/a04.html Chapter 6: The Spiders http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1502/a03.html Chapter 6b: From Small-Time Dealer To Big Time Cook http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1505/a01.html Chapter 7: Users, The Stories Of Three Meth Addicts http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1501.a09.html Chapter 8: Suffer The Children http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1503/a02.html Chapter 8b: The Struggle Of A Father And Daughter http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a06.html Chapter 9: The Pit In The Barn http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1506/a05.html Chapter 9b: A Homestead In Ruins http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a04.html Chapter 10: How Clean Is Clean? http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a03.html Chapter 11: Congress And The Pill Makers http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1506/a04.html Chapter 12: Squeezing The Balloon http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1507/a05.html Chapter 12b: "Life Or Meth?" http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a05.html Chapter 13: The Bust, Agents And A Dealer Square Off http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1506/a03.html Chapter 14: Getting Straight http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1507/a04.html Chapter 14b: "This Keeps Us Clean" http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a07.html Chapter 14c: Iowa'S Rainbow Recovery Center http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1504/a08.html Chapter 15: Nicki's Road http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1503/a01.html Epilogue http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1502/a05.html ----- Added by MAP: A Madness Called Meth, Editorial http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1509/a02.html A Madness Called Meth, To Our Readers http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1508/a07.html - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D