12 July 2008

Signs of a non-drug free city

There is something about this town that screams of drug use.

Perhaps it is the signs as you come closer to the town of Tulsa that read something along the lines of "Be careful of hitchhikers, they may be running from the law, or may be escaped inmates."

Or it could be the multiple anti-meth bill boards that are sporadically placed throughout the town.

Or it could be the woman who awaited us at our motel. She was scantily dressed in a scanky silver tank top and had the skin, jaw line, and teeth of a chronic meth user. She also was, at the time, escorting one man out of her room and a few minutes later welcoming what appeared to be her pimp into her room. After we showered and got ready to go to dinner, she had about 5 more "gentle" men in the room and at the doorway.

Or maybe it was the woman we saw on the way to the track who was on the sidewalk accompanied by two police officers, her tall bottle of vodka, and the "meth look".

Or maybe it was the waiter we had at dinner. He had the trademark sunken cheeks and was missing ALL of his front teeth. Toward the end of our long dinner, two elderly people came in and waved him down. I have never in my life seen a woman look as pale white as her -- and I have seen some WHITE people. Not only was she really white, but she had a couple gold front teeth, and the super sunken cheeks. By the way she greeted our waiter, I figured that she must be either his mother who introduced him to the product, or possibly his former piano teacher who rewarded him for his perfect recital with some perfect shots of that perfectly deadly drug. He was super friendly and despite a few times where after saying what we wanted he immediately forgot, and despite him being gone for his "smoke break", and despite the so obvious hicky/rope burn marks on his lower neck, he was really good. Probably some of the best service I have received at that chain. Garnered him almost an 80% tip. Yes, he was that good. Plus I felt that maybe, just maybe, by treating him well and praising him for the good work he was doing (verbally and monetarily) maybe he would turn a new leaf.

Maybe.

Or maybe it was the the three boys who repeatedly popped in and out of the restaurant. They would alternate between skateboarding outside on the sidewalk, walking in and going over to talk with someone at the bar, and walking to the hostess stand and strongly sniffing the various colored markers that were left on the stand. Since it was really late, the hostesses were not at the station so they got some serious sniffage each time.

Two more days of this environment as we handle ours at this track meet.

Hopefully this is all a good lesson for the kiddos about why they should not use hard drugs.

4 comments:

  1. Nicely written post. I could see everything in my head as you described it.

    Sounds like you're lucky your stuff didn't get ripped off from the motel. That place sounds saturated with meth. Funny how rarely the news talks about it, other than those MSNBC prison/jail specials. I thought crack was bad, but meth makes you old AND ugly. Amy Winehouse ain't but 24 and looks terrible.

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  2. met gone destroy america, if it dont blow everybody up first

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  3. @ kit -- Thanks. It was really crazy down there. We all shared a lot of stories and (pre) intervention moments in jest, but for real, trying to make sure the kids don't do anything stupid like use meth. Even showed some who hadn't heard of meth the images of some people who have used and the age progression pictures.

    @ torrance -- I was actually really afraid that we would blow up or witness a huge fire during the trip. Didn't feel safe until (ironically) I was back in Missouri -- possibly the meth capital of the country (and probably the world). After all, the people here are pros at making that stuff, so much that we now have a ton of laws on over the counter stuff you can't buy in bulk due to people using them up to produce meth.

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  4. Word. I work in a public defender's office, and a lot of our clients are drug addicts. The ones addicted to meth are always the easiest ones to spot based on their skeletal appearance. Crack is wack, but meth is death. There is nothing like seeing the effect that the drug has on people when it comes to preventing drug use; there's just no other way.

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