The growing evil in southwestern Michigan
Meth has become Michigan’s menace
By: Shaun McDowell

In recent years, methamphetamine has become the drug of choice here in southwestern Michigan because it’s highly addictive, cheap, and abundant.

Meth, a man-made drug, stimulates and affects the central nervous system. It will increase heart rate and body temperature, and damage internal organs; lungs, liver, heart, brain. Meth can be snorted, smoked, injected, and eaten, and the addiction will last at least one year. Mike Wilson, the Methamphetamine Taskforce coordinator, said, “Take a meth addict who wants to quit. After 11 months of not using, place them in a room with one hit of meth, and 100 out of 100 will not be able to resist the urge.”

In the 1980s meth grew popular and was mostly found in the biker gangs out West. It now has swept across the nation and become a problem in rural communities. In 2001, 91 meth labs were found in Michigan. In 2004, 209 were found an increase from 2005. Rosemary Parker of the Kalamazoo Gazette states, “Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Allegan, and St. Joseph counties are home to 4.9 percent of the state’s population, yet 49 percent of the state’s meth arrests took place here last year.”
Local, state, and federal law enforcement have put much attention on this nationwide problem. They have passed laws to require stores with medications that list pseudo ephedrine or ephedrine to keep them away from drug abusers. They have also created public awareness of this problem to educate residents about the dangers of meth.

"There’s a lot to this drug,” said Detective Sgt. Frank Williams of the Michigan State Police Meth Investigation Team. “It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle.”