And all this about LEO's protecting me from ravening meth wolves is a lot of hogwash. There virtually *IS* no law enforcement where I lived out in the north Susitna valley. Once you're off the highway, you're in the wild west. But the tweakers posed no greater threat than anyone else. At most they're an annoyance. The propaganda that anyone who does meth is an instant animal, out there with no self control trying to slaughter everyone is complete hogwash. And it's not even new hogwash. It's the same swill the state has been serving up for 75 years in its efforts to protect the monopoly of the big drug companies.
Cosmoline nailed it with this earlier post. I've dealt with tweakers. They are no more dangerous than any other criminal, IMO. Now, what we may be seeing is a regional disparity. IIRC, Jeff White is in Illinois, while Cosmoline is in Alaska. I formerly lived in CA. The behavior of tweakers, I've found, varies wildly depending on geographic location. In CA, the tweakers were agressive, overbearing jerks eager to ride over honest folks in search of their next fix. Here in Oregon, they're polite and courteous. I believe the difference is they know if they get out of line here, someone might decide to drop them. Lots of honest folk with guns here, and in Alaska. While this isn't that similar to alaska, we share (to a certain extent) more of the same mindset than Illinois or CA share with us.
My sister has been a tweaker, and hung out with tweakers, since 1990 or so. A lot of kids I grew up with are tweakers now. I've arrested tweakers while a loss prevention agent, and unarmed security. I've thrown more than a few out of bars over the course of 5 years as a bouncer. Your average tweaker is nothing compared to a half-drunk redheaded girl whose boyfriend is draped over a bleached blonde in a honky tonk bar.
The fault lies partly in the way society treats criminals. As with so many other things, CA deals by half measures, and it shows in the agressiveness of tweakers and panhandlers.
Not that Oregon is blameless. We're doing our part to bring in the Mexican gangs, too. It's illegal to buy or sell Nyquil and a dozen former OTC drugs here, unless you get a prescription from your doctor.
It's the same old Prohibition tale all over. You don't see Budweiser reps gunning down coors reps on street corners, do you? Marlbro(?) isn't trying to steal turf from the Virginia Slims people, right? And yet, drug dealers do these same things every day. The Oxycontin people aren't trying to take over the Ritalin gang by infiltration, are they?
The meth problem is, as someone else mentioned, just a scare tactic. Oh, it's a problem, yes. But it's being made worse by the War on Drugs, and overblown by the media and government.
