In Meth's Grip
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.
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DENISE’S STORY:
One woman’s decade-long battle with meth
‘The minute I tried it, I was hooked’
The white powder was in two neat lines on the stainless steel toilet paper holder in a nightclub bathroom. Denise Walker had never tried hard drugs before, but half a dozen shots of tequila fogged her judgment.Time to choose: Drugs or her daughter?
Denise Walker had been homeless for more than a year in Sacramento when she moved to Atascadero. She hoped a new community would mean a fresh start and enable her to see her two children.‘I hit my rock bottom’
Frightened by a judge's threat to take her infant daughter, Denise Walker sought treatment for her methamphetamine addiction. 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.
