“Crystal Darkness: Meth’s Deadly Assault on Our Community,” a state-wide program to fight the methamphetamine problem in the city, county and state is being planned for Jan. 13 in Sallisaw.

Those assisting with the program and the showing of the documentary, which will be at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 13 statewide, met Thursday for their first organizational meeting.

The Sallisaw Police Department and Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce are cooperating in planning the event, and were joined Thursday by many more agencies, which offered assistance.

On the state level, the program is co-chaired by Wes Lane and First Lady Kim Henry.

Sallisaw Police Officer Billy Oliver told the organizations’ representatives Thursday at a meeting at the chamber that Sallisaw will join the statewide watch party on Jan. 13, when the 30-minute documentary on the dangers of methamphetamines will be broadcast at 6:30 p.m. on Oklahoma television stations. A discussion about the dangers of methamphetamine use will follow and a hot line will be available for those who wish to call in to either report suspected methamphetamine makers and sellers or to ask for help for those addicted to methamphetamines.

Sallisaw Police Chief Shaloa Edwards said the calls will either be directed to local police for investigation or to counselors who can help addicts.

Edwards said the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs is offering grants of $5,000 to cities and organizations to help plan and hold the watch parties.

Methamphetamines are a continuing problem in Sallisaw and Sequoyah County Oliver told those at the meeting.

“We know there is a problem with methamphetamines in Sallisaw,” Oliver said. “Most of us go about our business as usual during the day, then go home. But after dark the town starts crawling (with methamphetamine users). The methamphetamines keep them awake, and then they start looking for more (methamphetamines) after dark,” Oliver said.

“What we are trying to do with this program is get to the youth before the methamphetamines gets to them,” Oliver said.

The most popular type of methamphetamines in use now is called “ice,” and is brought into the country from Mexico, Oliver said.

Edwards said ice is a stronger version of methamphetamine, and users often use the drug full strength, which “blows up their hearts.”

Edwards said, “There are few families in this community that have not been affected by methamphetamines.”

Edwards said after he graduated from high school, his law enforcement career took him out of the county to other law enforcement agencies, and before his election as Sallisaw’s police chief he was a police officer in Van Buren, Ark.

“But when I came back,” Edwards said, “I was shocked by what I found. The people I knew in high school, who I thought were going to make something out of their lives, were ruined (by methamphetamines). It is epidemic.”

Edwards said, “You ask these people who first gave them methamphetamines, and they always said that person ‘Ruined my life.’”

Oliver said the Crystal Darkness program has been held in other areas, and after the 30-minute documentary is shown, the hot lines were so overloaded with calls that all calls could not be answered.

“Crystal Darkness,” according to information given to those planning to take part, “is a gripping 30-minute documentary that confronts the truth about meth through first-hand accounts of former addicts and those whose lives will never be the same because of the drug. While the program is focused on their lies, the message is universal — any neighborhood in Oklahoma could be affected by meth.

“The story is told through the powerful testimonies of people who have gone through the dark and lonely depths of meth addition and its physically altering consequences. With heart wrenching and raw honesty, they speak with an unforgettable message of warning.”

Those who pledged to help with the program and watch party will meet again on Dec. 4.

They will be securing a place to hold the watch party and arranging publicity to inform parents, schools and churches of the event. The organizers hope the entire county will join in the anti-drug program.

State Plans

Oklahoma’s plans for the Jan. 13 documentary and watch party may be found on the Internet at www.crystaldarknessoklahoma.org.

The following information is from that Web site.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration a growing amount of the meth provided to the region is manufactured in major production facilities in Mexico as well as through clandestine laboratories in the Central Valley of California.

To a lesser extent it’s also produced locally in extremely hazardous meth labs. In these makeshift cook houses, the drug is made through a chemical process which can use a variety of highly toxic substances including lithium from batteries, sulfuric acid from drain cleaners, camping fuel, paint thinner and starter fluid to name a few.

The result is methamphetamine or meth known by a variety of street names including crank, crystal, ice, chalk and quartz. 

Meth can be introduced to the bloodstream through different ways including snorting, intake of pills, being smoked or through needles. It travels to the brain and creates an intense rush that can last many hours.

The rush is caused by a sharp increase in the amount of dopamine produced by the brain’s neurotransmitters. Dopamine is what creates the sensation of pleasure.

The pursuit of a quick fix comes at a tremendous cost. Over time, meth begins to destroy the brain’s pleasure receptors, rapidly reducing the effect of the drug.

Worse yet, as these receptors shut down it becomes difficult for the meth user to enjoy pleasure at all.

The result is depression, despair and a continual need to get high over and over again. At this point many meth addicts report needing large doses of the drug just to feel “normal.”

The drug is now firmly in control.

Information from Sequoyah County’s law enforcement agencies indicated at one time the county was one of the main sources of methamphetamine. The District Attorney’s Drug Task Force and sheriff’s office, along with local city and town police, have cooperated in investigations to arrest and prosecute meth makers and users.