Ensuring drug users get into drug treatment is more important than ever as this new method of making meth makes the drug more accessible.

Police and community groups who’ve been desperately trying to handle the meth problem by shutting down meth labs and getting users into meth treatment are afraid that the latest method of making methamphetamine, called ‘shake and bake’, will start a new wave of meth use and create a new generation of meth users. Their fears are justified: when you make a drug easier to get and less expensive, it can spread like wildfire – just like crack.

Shake and bake is all over the news. The ‘shake’ part of it refers to a small portable lab more or less in a bottle. It produces smaller amounts and requires fewer supplies than regular meth labs – which means there’s less chance of someone getting caught buying the supplies. This method also allows the drug to be made without the tell-tale odor that often leads to meth lab busts, and meth makers can simply pick up their lab and run should it come to that, although they may catch on fire in the process.

With things like shake and bake around, it’s more important than ever to ensure the people in your life don’t get involved in drugs, and that those who are already involved get into drug treatment. Meth is probably the most physically and mentally damaging of all drugs and, in truth, if a person is living in a drug environment, there’s no guarantee they won’t take meth or any other drug.

If you want to get a look at what meth can do, check out www.facesofmeth.us. The photos on the site show the changes in people from the time they get their first mug shot to a second shot, months or years later (during which time they’ve been using meth). The changes can be drastic after just a few months, and after two or three years, you could literally have trouble recognizing your own son or daughter. And even if they stop taking the drug, there’s a good chance they’ll never look the same again or fully recover their health.

There are a lot of people in prison because of drugs. Some would be better off in drug treatment. But anyone who sees what meth can do would no doubt feel that those who are in prison because they made or sold meth are probably in the right place. Let’s just hope they also get a complete drug rehab program so they’re less likely to get involved in drugs when they get out of prison, and less likely to continue to ruin the lives of others.