SENTINEL WATCH: November 10, 2008 Issue

GETTING THE BETTER OF ADDICTION

COLLEEN DOUGLASS

RECENTLY, my husband and I tooled along Canadian and northern US highways and byways during a transcontinental road trip. I was struck by the number of billboards warning of the dangers of "meth," an abbreviation for a highly addictive and dangerous drug, methamphetamine. In state after state, billboards admonished "Meth not even once," "Me not meth," "Stop meth," and "Meth kills."

These boards cry for help in combating the use of a debilitating stimulant that takes its toll in physical deterioration, bad decisions, child neglect, and violence. Many caring organizations fight drug dependence. But for lasting answers to this problem, I've consistently found scientific prayer the most effective.

When we got home, I poked around on the Internet, where I discovered, primarily through a Frontline piece and a series of articles in Portland's Oregonian, that meth addiction has reached epidemic proportions throughout the US and Canada. According to the United Nations, meth—also known as ice, crystal, or speed—ranks the highest of any hard-drug abuse across the globe, with as many addicts as cocaine and heroin combined. I also learned that half of those in prison and half of the children in foster care in the western US are there because of a seemingly unquenchable taste for the drug.

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