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.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Meth trade not gone, just evolving

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Legislation alone never cures drug addiction. As fast as policy-makers write laws to choke supply, desperate users and the scum that keep them hooked find new ways to feed the need.
Witness methamphetamine. No sooner did U.S. states pass tough laws placing pseudoephedrine — a common cold-medicine ingredient used in meth production — out of reach of backyard cooks than drug cartels from Mexico and elsewhere stepped in to fill the void.
Meth use is still very much a crisis — more than 92 percent of local law-enforcement officials on the West Coast consider it their No. 1 drug threat. But how the drug ends up on the streets has changed in some significant ways.
Homemade meth is on the decline. Pierce County’s experience illustrates what’s happening across the country as meth cooks find ingredients harder to come by. The state Department of Ecology cleaned up 148 meth labs and dumpsites here last year, compared with 589 in 2001.
The drop is cause for both celebration and consternation. Meth’s toxic and explosive alchemy puts not only cooks at great risk, but also families and private property. Fewer meth labs means fewer children sickened by meth exposure and fewer homes, motel rooms, sheds and fields turned into hazardous waste sites.
But kicking meth isn’t as easy as shutting down some mom-and-pop labs. Cutting off the supply of meth ingredients here in the United States has given rise to “superlabs” in Mexico, where drug cartels use established trafficking routes to smuggle the drug into American cities.
The Mexican government has had some success at curtailing the drug trade by racheting down import quotas on pseudoephedrine, according to groundbreaking reporting by The Oregonian.
Federal data analyzed by the Portland newspaper last year showed that street meth’s purity had fallen while its price increased, suggesting dealers were having to increasingly cut meth with additives. Treatment professionals said some addicts, frustrated by chasing an unattainable high, were hitting bottom and entering recovery sooner.
But again the meth trade has adapted. Asian meth traffickers have easy access to meth ingredients thanks to lax oversight at drug factories in India and China. Using more sophisticated techniques, Asian “superlabs” can churn out 1,100 pounds of meth a week, compared to a home lab that makes an ounce at a time or a Mexican superlab that produces 10 to 100 pounds week.
Much of the meth goes to supply Asia’s burgeoning demand. But left unchecked, the drug could easily find its way to U.S. streets. In December, Mexican officials discovered a 19.5-ton cache of pseudoephedrine in a cargo container from China. There also is evidence that traffickers are tapping Indian and Chinese sources to mass-produce meth in Canada.
Plugging the foreign meth pipeline is a much more difficult and delicate proposition than cracking down on the guy making an ounce or two in his storage shed. Lawmakers in this state and others are winning one battle against meth and the harm it inflicts on communities; victory on the emerging international front is just as important if the nation is ever to beat the scourge of meth.

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Blogger Kerry Hancock Jr said...

Death By Meth

today I have met my match
piece by piece I was broken down
now I am tormented by failure and wrath
and my will power is no where to be found

the wounds have forever scarred my soul
with the bitter taste of death
because everything I cherished most
fell victim to my addiction to meth

in complete ignorance I made the awful choice
to smoke that demonic pipe regardless of the voice

that so strongly told me not too
but I thought I had the power to overcome
realize once this drug has got you
a slave to misery is what you become

i write every word in agony
i am scared to sleep or rest
because then I must face reality
i chose death by doing meth

family has become memories
just pictures of my past
i am now my worst enemy
my reflection is broken glass

clouds shadow my every breath of life
i cannot find the words to describe
the aches and pains I endure inside
and all I can say is why

oh, how sad it really is
to watch a Godly man be destroyed
Lord have mercy on my kids
three beautiful girls and a handsome boy

to all that I love I leave you with this
please forgive me for my weakness
that real love I will always miss
I give you these words with a hug and a kiss

By: Kerry Dale Hancock Jr

I don't think I will ever forget the very night I wrote this poem. It was my fourth or fifth day being up without sleep. This was not out of the ordinary for me now it was my routine. Stay up for endless days then sleep then start over. Like other nights this was going to be the night I took my life and ended the horror I created. Right before I wrote this I was in a room with two other people and I was looking at before and after pictures on the Internet of people that have been on meth for awhile. I remember sitting in the chair in front of the computer crouched over the desk with a meth pipe in my hand taking hits. The other two people I was with wanted to inject meth from a needle so I left the room and sat in the next room. It was then on the recliner next to the front door that I wrote this poem and reflected on the demon called meth.

Every word in this poem had so much emotion behind it. I will explain a couple lines that some may not get at first. When I say "my reflection is broken glass" I am referring to another name for meth. Meth holds many names such as speed, glass, go fast and there is more. So what I am really saying is I have become meth. The next line is "clouds shadow my every breath of life." When you smoke meth it is called blowing clouds and when you are addicted to meth then all you do is snort, smoke, inject or eat meth. Sad but true. What this really means is all I do is smoke meth which means I was addicted.

I could write so much more but this is what I want you to know. If you are addicted to meth or know someone who is then never give up hope and I will tell you why. If you will just find a reason or help that person find a reason then the fight against addiction has started. Here is the trick to making it really easy to do. If you make Jesus Christ your reason one day at a time then I promise it will be a piece of cake. Do not think about being clean and drug free for a year or two or three. Only think about today if you want to make it anywhere. Let God give you His strength each day if you want guaranteed results. If you do it your way you may get somewhere but you will end up nowhere. Become an addict for Jesus so that when you do stumble you will just start over and get back on track doing what you were doing right just like the addict for meth will start their routine over and over.

Lord Jesus thank you for loving us all enough to deliver us from this demon called meth. Give us the wisdom and knowledge to surrender all and allow you to put us in peace and fulfilment in Christ. Lord I ask that you will give us mercy and grace against meth and all its evil doings. I know it is destroying men, woman, children and families across the world. May this distraction be cast aside so that our eyes will focus only on You Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Glory to GOD,

Kerry Dale Hancock Jr
messenger in CHRIST

Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Sunday, March 11, 2007 1:38:00 PM  
Blogger Eli Blake said...

I'm glad that they are doing more to get rid of the local meth labs though. Moving large amounts internationally still leaves it more vulnerable to interdiction (though despite the 9/11 recommendations we sill only screen about 2% of the cargo containers coming into U.S. ports). And as you say, there are hazards associated with its production that at least are no longer extant in our local communities. Unfortunately our state legislature failed to pass a pseudoephedrine bill two years ago (it was stopped by Senator Barbara Leff.) But local communities have taken the lead and worked to ban it anyway.

In fact, this week I got to attend a reception with our Attorney General Terry Goddard. He was up here to talk to our county board of supervisors about passing a ban which would cover unincorporated areas of the county. But after that he talked to us, primarily about what his office is doing in regard to meth. Since he was just re-elected in November, it was nice to just talk to a politician when he is not in campaign mode or running for anything. He said that his office is developing an 'Arizonameth' program based on the 'Montanameth' program that will be hard hitting and target junior high school and high school age kids.

Saturday, March 17, 2007 1:39:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What an informative article! Thanks! Anyway, I am still foreseeing the possibility of us being a drug-free country. It just saddens me that everyday, a lot of kids and adults alike are being brought to drug rehabs because of that evil drug. If our laws are not working well, what else can we do?

--amanda

Thursday, March 29, 2007 7:13:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What an informative article! Thanks! Anyway, I am still foreseeing the possibility of us being a drug-free country. It just saddens me that everyday, a lot of kids and adults alike are being brought to drug rehabs because of that evil drug. If our laws are not working well, what else can we do?

--amanda

Friday, March 30, 2007 4:07:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The government has lost the war on drugs "a war on its own people." Does anyone remember alcohol prohibition? When alcohol was made illegal it did not stop the demand it only created a black market that supplied the demand. Bootleggers "drug dealers" were criminals in the eyes of the law. Now you can buy a beer from any 7-11 or liquor store. If we were to make alcohol illegal again, do you believe a beer that costs $1.00 today would cost a 100$? and what do you think would happen when a hard up alcoholic wants another beer? do you think that alcoholic will thus turn to crime to feed his addiction? This is exactly what is wrong with our country, by making drugs illegal we put money into the hands of drug dealers and criminals. It costs about a dollar to make a gram of meth. One gram of meth sells for 100$ on the streets. If people were allowed to go to a liquor store purchase their meth for a few dollars do you really believe anyone would have to go through such extreme measures for their "fix?" People are going to do drugs whether we like it or not. I am simply suggesting we save the 60,000$ a year we spend to incarcerate people and countless billions on the failing drug war. We legalize & let people have the freedom of choosing what they wish to consume. The tax money and the savings of abolishing the DEA would bring this country out of its current recession. This war on drugs is only crippling our great nation "LAND OF THE FREE!! HOME OF THE BRAVE??"

Friday, February 20, 2009 6:25:00 PM  

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