Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2002)
Spilyqy Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon October 31. 2001 mum (Continued from page 1) When asked if he has ever stolen a car, he says, "Yes, I've stolen a car." When asked what his big gest crime was in order to get drugs, he shares ashamedly, "I broke into a music equipment warehouse once." Tewee said that crime was enticing be cause of the prospect of mass quantities of drugs. "While doing it, I was excited because of the fact I would get more drugs than I ever had in my life, and I did." His reasoning is common among the typical addicts. Crimes related to the need to get more meth happen every day. "I would say the majority of the people we're holding in our jail are in there for meth amphetamines or crimes associated with meth," said James Cole, criminal investi- . gator with the Warm Springs Police Department. Meth, according to Cole, is the number one priority for the Warm Springs police force. The reason being, he says, is the amount of theft, burglary, vio lence, child abuse, and child ne glect all to often associated with methamphetamine abusers. "We can't deny the connec tion between these crimes and meth," said Cole A glimpse into the recent Warm Springs past brings up the shocking and senseless mur- 1 .-it i i t der ot tribal member Micnaei Saludo. The murder happened in July 2001. Saludo's three assailants pulled away his crutches, pre venting his escape, and then proceeded to stab him mul tiple times. They sliced his throat, attempted to break his neck and stone him to death, according to the police investi gation. ; Finally, after multiple unsuc cessful attempts to murder him for more drug money, they smothered Saludo. All malefactors were under the influence of methamphet amines. It's horrific crimes like these, said Cole, that typify metham phetamine use. Users, said Cole, tend to not sleep. The lack of sleep has a lot to do with the psychotic epi sodes that typify "tweakers". "Depending on the stage of use," explained Cole, "there is more paranoia. People at that stage snap on a moment's no tice." Tewee explains he needs 50 bucks just to get started. "You know for the week end. But a weekend can last a month," he smiles. With that attitude the money needs to keep flowing, and any thing goes. This indulgent practice of continual use for days is known among addicts as "binging." It was after an 1 1 day binge that a tribal member burned down his sister's house on Christmas Day of 2001. Ac cording to Cole, the perpetra tor, suffering delusions, thought the Marines were after him, and he was trying to get away. Neighbors said they saw him running around his sister's lawn as her house burned, ducking and doing rolls as if he were engaged in military combat. Child abuse and neglect are rampant among users, and ac count for a good number of the criminal cases on the reser vation, said Cole. Child por nography, he said, is often found in the meth abuser's home. Many people would agree. Items found in the trunk of a vehicle on the reservation. It was determined that these items were to make methamphetamine out of the trunk of the vehicle. This type of lab is commonly referred One example of child abuse can be seen in Tewee's state ment, that his mother turned him on at age 11. Due to her own habits, she could also fall into the category of child neglect. The three to four babies born in Warm Spring each year with traces of methamphetamine in their bloodstreams, indicating their mother's drug use while preg nant, is also considered' child abuse. Child neglect is often a part of the addict's life, said Cole. "Someone will call me and say 'hey, this child is not being taken care of.' We'll go check it out." Cole says the discovery of a meth addict's home is usually shocking. The children often have dirty clothes and are prac ticing self-care. A meal is a bag of chips if they are lucky, says Cole. The filth in the home is hideous. "I've seen absolutely dis gusting homes. It's hard to even put it into words. Homes less than five years old are com pletely destroyed. We're talking about rugs covered with ani mal excrement, food rotting on the floor of the kitchen, a rot ting maggot-infested steak in the corner. Literally, carved pathways leading to the rooms through garbage, and I mean, raw garbage," described Cole. In cases like these, metham phetamine abuse is likely. While investigating the house on other charges, Warm Springs police keeps their eyes open for small pieces of tinfoil, hollowed out pens, resin-filled pipes, short ened straws, or blackened lightbulbs. All are parapherna lia commonly used for smok ing or snorting meth. Cole doesn't think using meth intravenously on the res ervation is common and has never seen it. Suicide, another social ill prevalent among tribal members, "plays its part," says Cole. "I would say meth is in volved in at least one-third of the suicides, and is as high as one-half," he adds. Police officers often risk their well-being addressing the unpredictable behaviors of a meth user andor addict. Cole notes a former co-worker is still out of work. During a vio lent arrest resistance that ocurred after an undercover police officer bought from a Warm Springs dealer, he was injured. Since then, he's had two back surgeries, shared Cole. On the reservation, police officers enter a crime scene, as sessing the scene for evidence of drug use, so they know "I've seen absolutely disgusting homes. Its hard to even put it into words. Homes less than five years old are completely destroyed. We 're talkine about rugs covered with animal excrement, food rotting On the floor Of the kitchen, a rotting maggot-infested steak in the corner. Literally, carved pathways leading to the rooms through garbage, and I mean, raw . garbage." James Cole Criminal Investigator, Warm Springs what they are getting into. Signs they have learned to recognize are a person not able to be quiet; very animated move ments and pupils dilated; exag gerated mannerisms; and, worse case scenario for the ad vanced addict, severe acne, also known as "meth sores." Meth sores are caused by the chemicals trying to escape the user's body. The user perceives "bugs" crawling under the skin, and the user picks at these. Acne-like sores develop, some times turning into large open wounds. "Also, if you know the per son," says Cole about the small community he works in, and targeting meth users at crime scenes, "they are not acting like their normal self." Regardless of risks for po lice officers, because of the high-risk crimes associated with meth use, given a choice be tween a marijuana or a meth offense, Warm Springs police force always chooses to address the latter first. A plight of rural towns Methamphetamine produc tion and use, known as meth, crank, rock, CR, ice, or crosstops, is spreading its dis mal wings across rural America. Small town residents typi cally thought to be safe from crimes of the big city, are ex periencing the same paranoia as city dwellers. Doors and cars are locked to prevent auto theft. Bikes arc no longer safe in the front yard. At nighttime houses are locked to deter the intruder and avoid the violent murder that hap pened in the neighboring small town. Grandmas are hiding their purses from their grand children. Warm Springs is not alone in its predicament. Guy Wallulatum, drug and alcohol counselor in Warm .. :.-r ' ' ' '. . ', i ... ; ;.v . 7 , K Springs, says since the 1980s methamphetamine use on the reservation has gotten pro gressively worse. In Central Oregon, only a quick 15-minute drive up the canyon from Warm Springs lies Madras, a quaint town with a seedy underside involving methamphetamine production and distribution. Ervey Dominguez, senior deputy for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, says Madras is the largest dis tribution point in Central Or egon. Much of the meth comes out of Washington, California, and the Willamette Valley. Basically, he says, the money goes south and the dope comes north. Otherwise, meth labs, in trailers, businesses, houses, and cars produce the white to brown powder in rigged chemistry labs. Afterwards it is distributed to the area's dealers, who then sell it to the users and the ad dicts. Cole estimates, about 1 5 of those dealers are on the reser vation. "We're aware of about 15, but there are probably at least double that. That's a conserva tive number," said Cole. But, says Cole, 1 haven't run into any Native American sup pliers yet. "Most of the lab busts around here are in Madras." Commonly referred to as the "nazi method", the pre ferred clandestine home method produces a high po tency methamphetamine. Producers use lithium strips from batteries to cause a chemi cal reaction, an extremely dan gerous procedure. Only one drop of water in this mixture, says Dominguez, could lead to a lethal explosion. A batch can be whipped-up in an hour. Greg Stlnson being used by the person involved to as a "rolling lab." Other meth is shipped into the United States from Mexico and various countries in Asia. Methamphetamine produc- tion is often dependent on the availability of two precursor chemicals, ephedrine and pseu- doephedrine. It is buffered with toxic and harmful substances like Drano and lye. '' "There are so many things in meth that are disgusting. It's hard to understand why anyone would want to knowingly put that into their body," said Cole. In the past meth was made with acetone and phosphorus, which caused it to smell. "Meth doesn't smell anymore because they no longer use these stinky chemicals," said Cole. "Methods today are quicker, using fewer chemicals to make more meth in less time," Cole said. On the reservation, meth labs are not a problem yet, and only two clandestine labs have been busted in Cole's time on the res ervation. "We found one in a car up at Kah-Nee-Ta, in which the per son was not a tribal member. He was making meth in his car and ripping off other cars in the parking lot," said Cole. The other, he said, was a small-time operation out of someone's house. The toxic process leaves buildings and cars uninhabitable without a cleanup, in which the average cost is $5,000 to $150,000. Addiction, it's a family affair Drugs', says Wallulatum, throw everything (in your body) out of whack. Furthermore, all drug abuse leads to family and community dysfunction,exclaims Wallulatum. "It's a family disease, along with child abuse and anger man agement," he says. "We need chiefs and leaders of the community to speak out about it," says Wallulatum about substance abuse on the reserva tion. "They (the younger genera tions) learn drug abuse from el ders, and from seeing other people do it." A former substance abuser, Wallulatum confidently explains the psyche of a drug addict. "Most drug addicts will even- tually get into some kind of le gal trouble that will lead them to treatment. Very few will just walk-in and say they need help." Wallulatum acknowledges drug and alcohol abuse on the reservation as a prevalent prob lem. He feels alcohol, which he calls a legal killer, is a gate way drug. It can lead to more hardcore drugs like meth. Tewee estimates he started drinking when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father was an alcoholic. Many professionals agree that problems with alcohol often accompany the meth abuser's addictions. At this time Wallulatum doesn't know of any reha bilitation centers that are spe cifically for meth. Tribal members who de velop meth problems usually find help outside of Warm Springs. Says Wallulatum of reha bilitation programs, "Each person needs an individual treatment plan, for different levels of drug problems. Some are more severe than others." He feels that if a person has faith, sweatlodges and other traditional forms of treatment can be very affective. "I see this type of approach more in the older people," he says. Long, hard trip Snorting or smoking lye and drano for 25 years can't be good for you. Tewee says he doesn't feel any health affects from his years of drug use. Yet, he has needle tracks where he shoots meth intra venously sometimes. He coughs constantly throughout the interview. A deep scar wraps around his upper arm where some one slashed him with a bro ken botde during a fist fight. Another slash on his forearm is from a knife. Meth addicts develop eye problems, have deep dark circles around their eyes, indi cating kidney problems, and often lose their teeth. The life of a drug addict shows its scars on the external physique. And internally methampehtamine users face detrimental damage. Intravenous users are at high-risk for deadly diseases like Hepatitis C and the AIDS virus. His own ghost Long-term use of meth can cause damage to the dopam ine producing brain cells. Dopamine is responsible for making humans feel good. Without dopamine produc tion, feeling happy is not a possibility. While high, users can suffer from delusions, paranoia, and symptoms that resemble schizophrenia. Long-term use can result in bi-polar (manic-depression) and schizophrenia. Tewee at first denied the drug has affected his mind in a negative way. Later, he changed his mind and said, "I guess you arc right. It docs mess with your mind. You see things that aren't there." He described a recurring shadow figure kneeling in the distance that he frequently sees while coming down from a high or when he is too high. "It's really probably just my own ghost," he hypothesized.