With Stronger, Cheaper Meth Flooding Streets, Recovery Staffs Brace To Help Patients Break Away From ‘Pull’

Opioids are being replaced by methamphetamines in areas of the country, but treatment centers are struggling to help patients because they get their money primarily for opioid treatments. Meanwhile, police try to figure out ways to better determine whether behavior is due to illicit drug use or mental health issues.

Stateline: As Meth Use Surges, One Region Tries To Combat ‘The Pull’

Erika Haas calls it “the pull.” When Haas was 24, her doctor prescribed OxyContin for back pain. She quickly progressed to heroin — and then to methamphetamines. Now 30 and in recovery, she described the grip that meth had over her for more than five years. “It’s like God tells you that if you take another breath, your children will die,” she said, shaking her head and trying to hold back tears. “You do everything you can not to take a breath. But eventually you do. That’s what it’s like. Your brain just screams at you.” (Vestal, 11/1)

Kaiser Health News: Meth Trip Or Mental Illness? Police Who Need To Know Often Can’t Tell

The dispatch call from the Concord, N.H., police department was brief. A woman returning to her truck spotted a man underneath. She confronted him. The man fled. Now the woman wanted a police officer to make sure her truck was OK. “Here we go,” muttered Officer Brian Cregg as he stepped on the gas. In less than three minutes, he was driving across the back of a Walmart parking lot, looking for a man on the run. (Bebinger, 11/1)

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