With seven methamphetamine lab busts in Mecklenburg County last year, up from one in 2004, the substance’s proliferation into a threatening epidemic is as clear as the crystalline drug itself. As mentioned in last week’s issue, meth’s longer high and cheaper cost compared to cocaine, coupled with its general ease of production from household products, provides a provocative allure for users. Although the drug produces an array of deadly side effects, meth’s confident rush proves to be an intoxicating and highly addictive temptation to users from a wide array of backgrounds; from dentists to teachers, mothers to grandfathers.
Sydney Miles* knows what it’s like. A 28-year-old mother of a smiling 18-month-old daughter, Miles celebrated an important milestone last month: a full year of being clean. “It’s the longest I’ve been clean – ever,” Miles said. “I’m amazed that (I) have been clean for a year because I sure was a party girl.”
Addiction’s escalation
By many standards Miles’ self-assessment is an understatement. A drug user for more than 10 years, Miles abused combinations of meth, cocaine, pain pills, marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes daily for nearly five of those years. A native of Mount Airy, Miles began smoking marijuana and consuming alcohol at age 13. At 14 she started stealing her mother’s Xanax; and at 16 she snorted cocaine and smoked crack heavily because her best friend’s boyfriend, a drug dealer, supplied all the product they wanted.
In and out of the hospital for depression, suicide attempts and cocaine addiction, Miles barely passed 11th grade. Her pattern of abuse took a drastic turn when she dabbled in meth at 18.
“The first time I tried it, I drank it by putting some in my coffee because it speeds you up even more,” Miles said. She then tried smoking it and her ruinous affair with meth escalated. “I smoked it on aluminum foil for the first time when I was 18 and I smoked it for four days straight,” she said. “I went out and got a tattoo, I was up the entire time and I thought, ‘This is … just wonderful.’” Meth became her drug of choice every weekend.
By age 23 she was doing meth daily. “I was meeting new dealers and … getting into the groups in the mountains that were making it – so I was meeting the big people.” Tired of keeping her drug use a secret, Miles eventually quit her job, packed a small duffel bag and walked out on her steady boyfriend and all her belongings. Knowing she’d have a constant supply, she moved to Pilot Mountain to live with a dealer with whom she’d started running drugs.
She marveled at the concealment methods used to transport meth. “We met Mexicans from Guatemala somewhere. … I don’t know who they were – they found us and we started getting meth by the pound,” she recalled. The meth was concealed in detergent boxes that appeared to have never been opened. “I don’t know how, but the seal would be on the box and the dope would be vacuum-sealed down in the bottom with the detergent over it. There would be at least four or five pounds in a big Gain box.” She explained that a pound of meth at the time (2002) would be worth maybe $30,000, “depending on how you cut it out, how much you’re going to sell and, of course, how much you’re going to use yourself.”
Demand was intense. “People just swarmed our house,” Miles said. “Our house was just 24/7 awful.” Both Miles and her boyfriend were dealing and doing an array of drugs from Xanax and OxyContin to crack, cocaine, meth and marijuana. “I did about five 40s (40-ounce bottles of alcohol) a day on top of at least an eight ball (of meth) with an ‘oxycotton’ in the morning before I could ever get going,” she said. “I would sit there half a day at least just smoking by myself if I needed to. I was 24 years old.”
Meth’s monstrous side effects
The drug use started taking its toll. Scrolling through her pocket calendar one day, Miles realized she had been up for 17 straight days. “When I finally passed out, I slept for three or four days and then I stayed up for the remainder of the month,” she said. “So I slept four days that month.” She weighed 93 pounds, her hair started falling out in clumps, her skin began to yellow and she began to experience paranoia. Her diet consisted only of cereal or nachos and cheese until she discovered Ensure and began buying it by the case, figuring it gave her all the nutrients she needed.
“I hated the fact that I would smoke as much as I would,” she said. “Eventually I wanted to be by myself because I didn’t want anyone to see how much I smoked or how much it took me to get high.”
With any lull in the drug supply, Miles and her boyfriend would become listless and do nothing – not even shower. “As soon as we hit some we’d get up, do the dishes, shower … it makes you want to clean, it makes you want to spend a long time on your makeup because it makes you confident. It makes you feel like you can go anywhere. I had to (use it) because I couldn’t function (without it),” she recalled.
The cycle continued for nine months and included two stints in jail for Miles’ boyfriend. He was arrested for violating a traffic check and was found to have half a pound of cocaine, a pound of meth, a couple ounces of marijuana and a handful of OxyContins underneath the seat of his stolen motorcycle. He was put under $1 million bond. Within a week she had collected just a fraction of that amount – $18,000 – which mysteriously was enough to procure his release. Seven days later her boyfriend wrecked on the way to his court date and was charged with possession of six grams of dope, driving without a valid license and drinking while driving. Again Miles posted bail. Miles claims her bondsmen from Charlotte were satisfied taking payment in drugs and stolen ATVs and motorcycles.
Miles’ binge in Pilot Mountain ended when she and her boyfriend sold to undercover officers. Her boyfriend was sentenced to 13 years in prison and Miles was placed under intense probation. She moved in with her mother, but it didn’t stop her drug use. “My probation officers … knew what I was up to,” she said. “They drug tested me two times in three years. It really hurt me in the end.”
Craving beyond comprehension
Miles became pregnant on her 26th birthday. She said, “I smoked (meth) and did pain pills until I was seven months pregnant” – around which time she was arrested for possession of marijuana and meth paraphernalia. She continued to use until her physician prescribed the antidepressant Wellbutrin, which helped her get out of bed without the aid of meth and finish the last two months of her pregnancy clean. “I thought, ‘What have I been doing this whole time?’” she said.
Her daughter was born healthy. “All I can figure is that it’s God’s good grace because now that my mind’s this clear I can’t believe I did that,” Miles said.
Yet even Miles’ newborn daughter couldn’t detract from the gnawing pull of drugs. Her mother had moved Miles and her infant daughter to Mooresville to avoid the drug rings in Mount Airy, to little avail. A month after her daughter’s birth, Miles felt she needed to treat herself so she started using once or twice a month whenever she could get to Mount Airy. By the end of 2004, Miles once again was dating a dealer and doing drugs four or five days a week, sometimes bringing her daughter along. She consequently failed three drug tests in Mooresville and violated her probation.
That final misstep would prove to be the saving grace for Miles and her daughter.
* Names have been changed to protect individuals’ privacy.
