DEATH * BY * METH

This is dedicated to Travis Holappa who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered on July 25, 2004 in Northern Minnesota. This was all due to meth. I am Travis' mother and I wish to make this devastation turn into a better thing by educating and exposing the truth about meth, the dangers, and the deadly consequences it brings about to individuals and communities.

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Location: Colorado, United States

I want to do what I can to educate people about what is going on around the world with the meth problem. I want people to know about it BEFORE they even get the idea to want to try it. It is a dangerous drug and will ruin your life as well as all those who love you. I am on a mission on behalf of my only son, Travis.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Australia talks about Cutting Edge: The Meth Epidemic, a PBS video

Cutting Edge: The Meth Epidemic

Gripping documentary on the explosion of methamphetamine abuse in the US.

Speed, crack, crystal. No matter its name, methamphetamine exerts a destructive chemical power on the brains of users by creating a feeling of euphoria. Eventually, addicts can't feel pleasure from anything except more meth.

This is a gripping documentary, not just for the content but for how it came about as a collaboration between the investigative arm of an American newspaper and a television program.

Made by Frontline, part of the PBS network, and The Oregonian newspaper, which was nominated for a Pulitzer award for its original reporting, it tracks how methamphetamine abuse has exploded in America and the social consequences that have been wrought on communities. The key constituents of the drug, which has acquired currency over here on the dance party circuit, can be sourced from a handful of factories in the world.

But the documentary contends that early attempts to stem the flow of essential ingredients ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - contained in over-the-counter cough and cold remedies - failed, owing to legislative hold-ups and the power of the pharmaceutical lobby.

The "epidemic" began in Oregon and California but has moved inexorably to the mid-west and the east coast of the US. As the purity of the drug has waxed and waned on the street following law enforcement measures, the report suggests that so to has the rate of crimes, deaths and injuries.

The toll taken on users is simply illustrated in a sequence of mug shots taken over several years. There is also a toll to be paid by the wave of abused and neglected children, the "meth-orphans". Striking stuff.

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