Pubdate: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT) Copyright: 2005 The Billings Gazette Contact: http://www.billingsgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515 Author: Ed Kemmick, Gazette Staff Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) A NATIONAL HERO BREAKS METH CLICHE Last March, Ashley Smith seemed like the perfect hero. She was the widowed single mom in Atlanta who was held hostage in her own apartment by an accused rapist who was fresh off a killing spree that claimed four lives. After seven long hours of talking to her kidnapper, Brian Nichols, about her daughter, pancakes and the spiritual best-seller "The Purpose- Driven Life," the plucky brunette persuaded Nichols to surrender. Soon after the ordeal, Smith said she had told Nichols he must have been sent to her apartment for a reason, that it might have been his destiny to be caught so he could spread the word of God to fellow prisoners. That was the story we were all familiar with until last week, when Smith's memoir, "Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero," was published. In the book, Smith admitted that she offered Nichols more than spiritual succor. She also gave him some of her crystal methamphetamine, also known as "ice." Reinforcing the impression that we live in a world where the boundaries between "reality TV" and what we are pleased to call "real life" have disappeared, Smith went on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" the day after her memoir was released to tell the Queen of Talk about her tribulations. According to the Washington Post, Smith "is also hoping for a television or movie deal so she can reach more people like her." I don't think she'll have to hope very hard. There are probably a few hundred scriptwriters raring to get started right now, at least those who aren't working on scripts about post-Katrina New Orleans or reality shows about ordinary citizens trapped in a domed stadium. I don't want to make light of what happened to Smith. She must have been in terror during those seven hours with Nichols, and her addiction to meth is not funny. She told Oprah that she used to do meth "every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Moving In Mysterious Ways But it is hard to keep up with the weirdness surrounding this story. When Smith appeared on Oprah's show, Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," made a "surprise" appearance. He told the audience that what happened to Smith proved that "you don't have to be perfect to be used by God." I guess you don't have to be perfect to boost sales of somebody else's book, either. I wonder who will play Warren when "The Ashley Smith Story" hits the small screen. And I wonder whether God thinks crystal meth is an acceptable agent of spreading goodness. I wish Smith and Oprah had talked about a truly important subject - how you can't generalize about meth users. We all "know," don't we, that meth addicts are gaunt, scary-looking criminals who would sell their mothers to get another bag of crank? The next time somebody tells you he can identify a meth user because "they all" have bad skin, rotten teeth and sticklike figures, show them a picture of Ashley Smith. It was unclear how long she used, but it was long enough for her to have had her daughter taken away and long enough for her to have spent time in a psychiatric hospital because of her addiction. She looked perfectly normal at the time of her ordeal with the kidnapper. I don't remember anyone claiming, based on her appearance, that she was using crank. The most convincing detail I heard was Smith's explanation of why she decided not to do any crank with Nichols. She said she hadn't done any meth for 36 hours before being taken hostage and wouldn't do any with her abductor. "If the cops were going to bust in here and find me dead, they were not going to find drugs in me when they did the autopsy," she said. "I was not going to die tonight and stand before God, having done a bunch of ice up my nose." Everybody fighting a bad addiction is looking for a bolt of lighting, some overwhelming reason to quit and get clean. Ashley Smith's unlikely savior was a cold-blooded killer. For her, that was a powerful message. For anyone else trying to find meaning in this strange tale, best of luck. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin