A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

A 25-year-old felon in February had an appointment with probation officer Kara Kelly in Reno that included a drug test.

When Christopher Tallman was told he would be jailed because his urine tested positive for methamphetamine, he flew into a panicked rage. He lunged for the officer's handgun and the two fell into a violent scuffle that ended when the officer shot Tallman in the head and killed him.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

If anyone knows anything about regaining his life after decades of drug addiction and run-ins with the law, it's Mike Moran.

He has experienced a lot from the time he took his first hit of methamphetamine at 25 to when he was a 40-year-old sitting in the Washoe County Jail for stealing money from his employer to feed his meth habit.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

Dentists Savita Hemrajani and Melinda Kuhn remember the first time they saw meth mouth.

Several years ago, the patients with "scooped out," severely decayed teeth began to appear.

Now, at the Health Access Washoe County dental clinic, which provides sliding-scale dental care, they see it every week.

"They tell you one tooth is hurting and they open their mouth and they're almost all decayed down to the gumline," Dr. Kuhn said. "Most of them end up losing their teeth at very young ages."

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

During one night in February, detectives from the Carson Special Enforcement Team discovered nearly 1.5 pounds of methamphetamine worth almost $70,000 hidden in two shoeboxes at a North Roop Street apartment.

In April, they found 32-year-old Michael Coyner in possession of a meth lab he'd assembled in the garage of his parents' Diamond Avenue home.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

Steve Finnell found a glass drug pipe in his moody 15-year-old daughter Lexi's bedroom.

He confronted Lexi and her friends.

She said it wasn't hers. It belonged to another friend. She just put it in her drawer after the group took it away from their friend.

"You didn't want to think your child was doing that," Steve Finnell said.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

Instead of worrying about their upcoming biology test or if their latest crush likes them, Washoe County adolescent methamphetamine addicts are meeting with probation officers, urinating into cups for mandatory drug testing and having to prove to their parents that they can be trusted again.

Nice childhood, huh?

Many teen addicts run away and live on the streets, or with strangers or older meth addicts. Others end up sexually assaulted or robbed. They drop out of school.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

For the last four years, Lyon County has been the fastest-growing county in Nevada.

It was also recently ranked second in the nation for per-capita growth for counties with populations of 10,000 or more. The population grew 34 percent from 2000 to 2005, when the number of residents exceeded 52,000.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

'CRYSTAL METH IS ... AN OBSESSION'

Note: Only first names are used for participants in Crystal Meth Anonymous because participants in 12-step programs use anonymity as part of their recovery.

The ceiling fan is whirling and the concrete floor is dirty and scuffed.

Sobriety creeds have been scratched on the walls of the 12-Step Club on Reno's Alvaro Street. A coffee pot is nearby.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

The euphoric high a methamphetamine user feels is about 12 times as intense as having sex.

Meth triggers a spike in dopamine -- a brain chemical that allows humans to feel pleasure -- that is four times greater than cocaine. That effect makes methamphetamine highly addictive and can permanently alter brain chemistry.

"This drug makes the brain change in ways that are hard to undo," said Dr. Melissa Piasecki, an addiction specialist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

An April 7 post on a Reno Web site's "men seeking men" personals: "HORNED UP PNP-BOY-TOY LOOKING FOR WEEKEND FUN."

Click the link and there are pictures and more explanation. "I would like to PNP with you and do whatever your fantasies want ... I love to get real intense with a guy after we've gotten buzzed a bit."

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

'I HAD A GOOD LIFE ... I JUST SNAPPED'

After 12 years of sobriety, Tom Ruble left an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting one Monday night in 1994, walked to downtown Honolulu and bought crack cocaine.

"Nothing in particular was going on," said Ruble, now a youth counselor in Reno. "I was busy. I had a good job, a nice life. I just snapped."

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

AS MORE AND MORE WOMEN GO TO PRISON FOR METH, RESOURCES TO HELP THEM ARE STRETCHED

Barbara Pierson is no clinical substance abuse expert.

But she is a former "crack head" and alcoholic who's been sober for nearly a decade.

These days, she calls herself a wounded healer. Pierson has used her own money and opened two homes in Sparks for transitional housing for women battling substance abuse, many of whom are mothers with methamphetamine addictions.

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A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

'NIGHT AND DAY'

Eric Maki was working at a Reno fast food restaurant when suddenly, in the middle of his shift, something went wrong.

Tears began to stream down his face.

"I realized I had no car, I was in my 30s and I was flipping burgers at Wendy's," said Maki, now 38 and methamphetamine-free for the past three years. "A co-worker told me I needed to take a break. So I sat there eating chicken nuggets wondering what I was doing with my life."

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Nevada voters will once again take up a marijuana ballot initiative this fall, an issue muddied in rhetoric from both sides. The Regulation of Marijuana Initiative will appear on ballots in November. It would allow those 21 years old and older to legally possess, use and transfer one ounce or less of marijuana. Penalties are also stiffened for those who drive under the influence of marijuana or sell it to minors. Use in public would be prohibited.

For a $1,000 annual license fee, state-licensed retailers would be able to sell marijuana. An excise tax of $45 per ounce would be collected by the state from wholesalers. Sales tax would be the same as other products. Half of the profits from related licensing fees and taxes would be used for substance abuse treatment and education.

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I have just read online the editorial from Tuesday, which contains the following:

"In a state where prostitution is legal in certain counties, bars are not required to close and children can legally possess and use tobacco, objections to marijuana legalization on a moral basis seem hypocritical."

This kind of reasoning is why our society has these issues in the first place. That is akin to using the rationale that because there aren't enough police to pull over every speeder on the highway, that we should just let people speed.

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Of course Chief Perkins is strongly against decriminalizing marijuana - -- that's his business. And business is good.

You know what's ironic? That the two groups most opposed to the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana initiative are cops and drug dealers (it's a Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner kinda thing between those two).

Stuck in the middle are the people who don't have crime on their minds, and are the ones paying for it all. Meanwhile, our government turns a blind eye to the poppy fields in Afghanistan, and pledges to cut meth use by 15 percent (aim low -- shoot lower!) to focus on outlawing hemp. Even though the original drafts of the Constitution were written on hemp paper! If the current administration had its way, our Founding Fathers would be considered drug dealers.

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Richard Perkins tells us that "every law enforcement group in Nevada strongly opposes the ballot measure" to tax and regulate marijuana, as though their positions of authority are simply enough to induce the population. No need to bother with such trivials as facts or realities ["Do NOT rock the ganja!," Your Opinion, May 25].

I believe Perkins when he says that he has "rarely met a heroin, crack or meth addict who didn't start with marijuana." But this is anecdotal nonsense meant to conjure up the mystical "gateway drug" that leads all down the path to coke parties and premarital sex.

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In Speaker of the Nevada Assembly/Henderson Police Chief Richard Perkins' recent column in CityLife [ "Do NOT rock the ganga!," Your Opinion, May 25], Perkins expresses some remarkably hostile sentiments in criticizing the initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada. He even tries to distract readers with baseless attacks and outright lies about both the initiative and our campaign manager, Neal Levine.

First and foremost, Perkins' personal attacks on Neal Levine are unwarranted. I know Neal and work with him every day. He doesn't smoke marijuana, and he's a devoted husband and father. He's sacrificing and working ungodly hours in support of the initiative. Like many, he recognizes that the war on marijuana is a miserable and expensive policy failure, and he's working hard to promote commonsense alternatives. Unfortunately, it appears Perkins doesn't know how to disagree without being disagreeable.

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Everything has to change.

From the clothes she wears to the food she eats, even when she uses the restroom - it is all dictated by counselors at the center.

They tell her what to talk about and correct the way she walks.

In return, she learns how to understand her feelings, to recognize what thoughts lead to which behaviors.

Before she leaves on June 27, she makes a list of positive peers and those who will be destructive.

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'WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LET ME GET HIGH?'

Editor's note Carson City has identified the battle with methamphetamine as its No. 1 priority. Throughout the year, the Nevada Appeal will run stories highlighting addicts' struggles, as well as the struggles of family, friends and the community.

This is the second installment of a three-part series which follows a girl through three years, beginning with her addiction to heroin and cocaine in Dallas and following her through her transition to Carson City and introduction to methamphetamine.

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