Moses Lake students learn of drug's effects

MOSES LAKE — State Attorney General Rob McKenna visited Moses Lake High School to warn them against the dangers of methamphetamines and a woman shared her experience with the drug.

We've got a problem, McKenna said. Jails and prisons are filled with people who committed crimes related to methamphetamine whether it be using or burglarizing to support the habit.

The people who use are not the only ones affected, he added. Many times there are children involved.

"Meth is so powerful it will consume lives," speaker Travis Talbot said. "Meth is one of those things that will strip your lives away. It draws you in."

He warned the high school students of the health effects of the drug by showing them a video of a woman who used heavily for a couple years. The drug tore through her brain leaving holes. The condition of her brain is similar to a 60 or 70-year-old person.

"The damage you do with meth is damage you do for a lifetime," Talbot said. "Your brain will never heal."

He presented Jamie Crawford, 21, who is a recovering methamphetamine addict.

It all began with a keg party she attended when she was 15-years-old.

"It was the cool thing to do in high school," she said. "I loved it from the first hit. I knew it wasn't going to be my last hit."

She recalled driving through a neighborhood known for drugs and yelling "crack head" and "tweaker" to people she saw from her car.

Five months later she was in a house in the neighborhood getting high.

"I was that person I was laughing at," she said.

There were a lot of things she did not get to do because she used meth.

She never graduated with her class. With the exception of her freshman year of high school, she never went to dances and quit playing sports.

At 17 she knew of five murders related to drugs.

"I remember a man getting his finger chopped off," Crawford said. "It's serious."

The incident was over a small amount of money and cigarettes.

She witnessed a man get shot in the head. She was not the only witness.

A 6-year-old also saw the crime.

"He will have psychological problems for the rest of his life and we didn't care," she said.

The 6-year-old shared his memory of the incident with his class during show and tell, she added.

She stole to help her habit.

Crawford conducted mail fraud and stole computers, she said.

Her past actions leave her choice limited for the future.

She can never possess a firearm and she cannot vote.

"I have a brand new baby," Crawford said. "McDonald's won't hire me because I'm a felon."

Right now she is serving five years of federal probation and can not leave Yakima County without permission. She has been sober for the last two years from the drug.