First posted by: WKTV.COM
UTICA, N.Y. (PART ONE) – In New York, Oneida County had the highest number of incidents of methamphetamine related arrests in 2015.
According to NY State Police, last year Central New York had 349 meth busts. That’s almost one bust every day, and it’s increased 60 percent from the year before.
NYS Trooper Chad Chevrier, from CCSERT (Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team) said, “Meth is one of the most addictive drugs out there. It’s extremely powerful, and users only have to take a small amount to have a very long high.”
Chevrier says it’s because of what law enforcement refers to as the shake and bake or one-pot method. This method is making the drug even more accessible, and it’s making a huge impact on those who take the drug.
It’s a method where addicts mix dangerous, flammable chemicals inside soda bottles, causing a reaction needed to turn toxic ingredients into meth.
“The reason it’s so prevalent right now is you could have final product within an hour. It’s easy to conceal, it’s mobile, and it’s quick. You could put it in a backpack, walk down to the park and finish your cook. Or you could do a cook down in the park. You could go from store to hardware store, pick up your chemicals, or you could be driving down the road burping your bottle, doing a cook right to finished product in your car.”
But it’s also dangerous. “It creates a chemical, fire and environmental hazard, which is not only scary, it’s costly to clean up,” said Chevrier.
However danger is not something users are thinking about when they need the drug.
Former meth user and cook, Erin Gillespie said, “It was extremely easy. I watched how to make it three times. And then the fourth time I jumped in, learned how to make it. It came too naturally to me. I thought, I have nothing, I have nobody so let me make some money, and get high. And so, that’s what I did.”
After being arrested multiple times for cooking and using meth in Rome, Gillespie is in Willard Drug Treatment Facility, a state run Department of Corrections program.
“That drug was the worst drug I’ve ever done, but it gave me honestly the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt in my life,” said Gillespie. “The drugs became everything to me. After so much time using them, I had to wake up to them, and I had to go to sleep to them. And throughout the whole day that’s all I did, focus on drugs, doing them, getting money to get more of them, and doing the same thing over and over and over.”
Gillespie is no different from many young women in this area. She grew up in a conservative home in Clayville, going to church, and riding horses on her parents’ farm. “I was in 4H, I was an honor roll student. I went to college for equine science and management, but I never finished,” said Gillespie shaking her head.
“I started smoking pot in high school. In my school, that’s what everybody did. We smoked weed and drank. And then once I got to college I started using cocaine and ecstacy. It wasn’t a far jump to meth,” said Gillespie.
Erin’s mother, Beverly Gillespie, shakes visibly when she talks about what her daughter once was.
“This drug took a little girl who was happy go lucky and rode horses and sang at the top of her lungs, and it made her into a ghost. She’s a shadow of who she used to be. She was not Erin anymore, and I couldn’t reach her anymore… I knew she was losing the battle,” said Beverly.
“Meth users could typically be up for days. It’s not uncommon for a week or two weeks with zero sleep. Until they flat out crash, and often they sleep for days, ” said Chevrier.
After years of using and cooking, Gillespie was estranged from family members, including her seven-year-old son Evan, who now lives with Beverly. She says getting back to him keeps her on the straight and narrow.
“It breaks my heart every time I talk to my mother. I hear her voice, and she’s talking about meth to me. That breaks my heart. It’s like who was I, you know? What was I doing?” said Gillespie.
She is sober now for the first time in nearly 15 years, thanks to the alternative Willard Rehab provided. Instead of prison, she was given the option to finish the program, dry out, and begin again.
The program is run like a military institution. You have to ask permission to use the bathroom, to speak, to move, something Gillespie appreciates.
“I haven’t had this kind of discipline and I haven’t been this sober in such a long time. I haven’t been able to see things clearly in a really long time,” said Gillespei. “So, I believe, for me there is hope.”
But for law enforcement recovery from meth is the exception, and Trooper Chevrier is taking this recovery with a degree of skepticism.
“I have never met anybody in our area that has recovered from meth addiction,” said Chevrier.
A powerful statement from someone who’s been on the inside, and has known many addicts.
In part two of our in-depth look inside meth, we hear what happens to Erin, and what law enforcement and the state are doing to curb the rise in drug use.