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Methamphetamine is easy to make, cheap to buy and so powerfully addictive that it is wreaking havoc on SLO County. It is destroying families and taxing local law enforcement and treatment resources.
Hazardous chemicals are hauled out of quiet neighborhoods. Drug deals go down in grocery store parking lots. Children play near parents cooking drugs. This is the stark world narcotics detectives in San Luis Obispo County see almost daily. "I'll go into locations and in this area are the kids' toys on the ground where I'm working as a hazardous materials handler," said Mike Kennedy, investigator for the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Office.
Fragile, but free
Denise Walker had little money, rusty work skills and no family in San Luis Obispo County when she graduated in August from a 10-month drug treatment program and began to rebuild her life.