Here's a progress report on Pierce County's meth situation.

"'The home itself will be in disorder as meth users loose all sense of responsibility in housekeeping and child care', Shay said. (Grant County Undersheriff Mike Shay) 'The parents can barely function because of meth addiction'" (Citizens needed to expose local meth labs, Columbia Basin Herald, February 4, 2002)

Meth, also known as “crank” or “speed,” is a potent central nervous system stimulant with the potential to cause drug dependence.

Because of the refinement of recipes, today’s meth is as much as six times as potent as the drug that was sold during the ‘60’s. Physicians who specialize in addiction medicine emphasize that this is a drug, second only to heroin, in its addictive characteristics, and give a bleak prognosis for recovery.

Dr. Michael Sise, trauma surgeon at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, states: “Meth carries a prognosis that is worse than many cancers.”

"Hot Quotes"

"The craving came on suddenly like a teen-age crush. Methamphetamine, or crank as it is called on the street, was the sweet-talking stranger from the other side of the tracks, irresistible, exciting, thrilling -- at first." (Dying for a drug fix, Everett Herald, February 10, 2002)

"Pierce County's war against methamphetamines is far from being won, but the Pierce County Sheriff's Department hopes that it is seeing a downward trend in the war against meth." (Pierce County may have 'turned corner' in meth war, South Pierce County Dispatch, January 30, 2002)