TULSA, Okla., July 8 - The Laura Dester Shelter here is licensed for 38 children, but at times in the past months it has housed 90, forcing siblings to double up in cots. It is supposed to be a 24-hour stopping point between troubled homes and foster care, but with foster homes backed up, children are staying weeks and sometimes months, making it more orphanage than shelter, a cacophony of need.
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This is a problem methamphetamine has made, a scene increasingly familiar across the country as the number of foster children rises rapidly in states hit hard by the drug, the overwhelming number of them, officials say, taken from parents who were using or making methamphetamine.
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Back when I was hooked on coke I tried some of this shit (anything for a buzz) and I can't describe what it did to my mind and body. This is worse than just about any drug because it's cheap to make and so highly addictive. Aside from giving the finger to the conservatives who always point to New York's junkies as a byproduct of our 'liberal lifestyle of sin', this is mostly a rural problem where treatment centers are farther apart and not as readily available as in big cities. Something has to be done about this before Rural America loses several generations to this insidious chemical.
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