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| Buffalo County Detention Center inmate Cody Cruse, 22, talks with his drug and alcohol counselor at the center in Kearney, Neb., last year. After being sentenced to one year in jail for attempted possession of methamphetamine, Cruse, enrolled in a 15-week drug and alcohol treatment program at the Buffalo County Detention Center. (Photo by Kearney Hub, Brad Norton/AP) |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: JOE CREA COMMENTS
 
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comparison
to other addictions like alcohol. The user can easily destroy his or her life
in six short months.
Randy Pumphrey, executive director of the Lambda Center, said his clients recognize
they have a problem and want help. Often their paranoia is at such a peak they
will stare out of windows of the center, convinced the FBI is watching them,
said Beth Wheeler, a social worker at the Lambda Center. She added that many
clients pull on the doors of the clinic and say they want to leave.
“Within 48 hours they will want to discharge and those of them who end
up staying, move through that resistance,” Wheeler said.
Pumphrey said that unlike those who suffer from alcoholism or heroin addiction,
many crystal meth addicts don’t have the “old timers” at
meetings who have been sober for 20 years, because crystal meth is a relatively
new phenomenon. Many only have a year or two of sobriety under their belts.
“We are at a disadvantage because no one in our programs can look at
someone and say, ‘Wow, you could actually not use for 10-15 years?’ “
Addicts must also recognize, according to Pumphrey, that contrary to what
they may believe, they cannot immediately repair their lives.
“It may take longer to repair their lives than it did to destroy it,” Pumphrey
said. “They need to get back to a place where they feel emotionally comfortable
and that is a difficult thing to do.”
Matt, 26, was homeless in Los Angeles for two months because of his crystal
addiction. Sleeping on park benches and in his car, Matt had cut off contact
with his family and said that he could have died on the streets of Hollywood
and no one would have known. He also harbors guilt about the way he treated
his mother, who was suffering from cancer at the t
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