Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 8.3.16

NEWS
IN DEPTH
Ethan Smith. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
DECADE AFTER EPIDEMIC, METH SURGES AGAIN
RIPPLE EFFECTS ARE FELT ACROSS THE VALLEY AS LAW ENFORCEMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH OFFICIALS REPORT SHARP UPTICK IN METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE
BY JUSTIN FRANZ
The rst time Ethan Smith used methamphetamine was a few months before his ninth birth- day. A close family member was a drug dealer, and one night in 1997 the 8-year-old boy saw her using meth. Like any curious child, he asked what it was and why she was smoking it.
“Here, let me show you,” she said.
Moments later, Smith had taken his rst hit of methamphetamine. It impacted him almost immediately. He became sick and the next day at school he was sent home early after throwing up. When Smith came home, the family member gave him heroin to level him out. He passed out immediately.
“It made me super paranoid and no kid should be paranoid about anything, except for maybe worrying about what their mom will say when they get their new shoes muddy,” Smith, now 27, said recently. “I never touched the stu again until I was in my 20s.”
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, meth- amphetamine use was on the rise in Mon- tana. In response, the state Legislature and federal government passed laws mak- ing it harder to get the supplies used to make meth, and ve recovery homes were established around the state, including a
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AUGUST 3, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM