I am originally from a small town in southern West Virginia. I have lived away from the area for about 8 years now, but I continue to go back 3-4 times a year to visit family and friends. I have noticed over the last several years that the town I grew up in (and many small towns just like it) is being devastated by the growing methamphetamine problem. Streets that I used to ride bikes on as a kid are no longer safe, the crime rate has skyrocketed (vandalism, theft, assault, arson, you name it), a growing number of people are on welfare and are jobless because they spend all of their money doing drugs. The conditions of these towns are terrible....run-down builidings, condemned buildings (from houses that were used as meth labs), people not taking care of themselves and their properties. It makes me want to cry just thinking about how nice my little town used to be and now it's completely overrun by drugs. My mother told me that she could guarantee that if a car drives down our street past 10:00pm, 9 out of 10 times it will be a drug-run. My next door neighbors have taken in a baby of one of their relatives because the parents were so strung out on meth that they left her laying in a crib and her skull was sunken in. My first cousin has had two people found dead in her trailer within the last year and she recently came into some money (about $60,000, but that is a long story) and it's ALL gone within 4 months....all spent on drugs! Stories like this are all I hear now about the area that I grew up in. Is anyone else facing issues like this? What can be done to change this worsening epidemic? Any thougtful input would be appreciated!
