Last Thursday night the son of long-time good friends allegedly¹ broke into two homes — one, the home of a family friend and the other, the home of an unrelated family (husband, wife and sleeping child) — and stabbed an 8-year old child, her mother, and the family friend in the first home in the course of burglaries.  He was high on a combination of meth and acid.  Meth has been an addiction he cannot seem to break.  Adding acid to it was like pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire.  Something snapped, who cares what, and he went on a spree that could have ended much, much worse than it did but is certainly horrible enough.

I have known this kid since he was eight or nine. He isn’t a monster, yet he is now being held in jail with no possibility of bail charged with three counts of attempted murder.  My heart is breaking for his parents, because they literally moved heaven and earth for as long as they could to help him break his addictions and come to terms with what it means to live life in this society within the law.

Before he turned 18, they had him admitted to a live-away rehab/school facility in another state, where he did manage to remain drug-free.  He managed to graduate from high school and was looking for a job when he fell off the wagon and while driving drunk, totalled his car.  He served jail time, went through rehab again, and this time around had stayed clean for several months.  Because he is now over age 18, his parents no longer have any standing to do anything to help him.  As a result they had no choice but to ask him to leave their home, changing their locks and beefing up their security system.

Because of their son’s addictions, their lives have been upturned and shaken out.  Their marriage is broken — they’re divorcing after nearly 30 years of marriage.  And now, their son has not only done violence to himself, but to others — others who are innocents.  The injuries to the 8-year old were very bad.  She is expected to recover, but recovery from the trauma of being attacked suddenly and violently while sleeping in her bed will take much longer than the physical injury.  Her mother was cut, but not as seriously.  Her father managed to subdue him and hold him until the police came.

My heart is broken for his parents, for him, for the people he injured.  At least seven lives are forever altered, including one young innocent who just happened to be sleeping in her own bed at the wrong time.  I’m grateful no one died, but I cannot imagine being his parents and getting the call that their son has just wantonly taken a knife and slashed an eigh-year old girl’s throat for absolutely no reason at all.  The devastation he has left in the wake of his high is monumental.

I’m angry, too.  I know how dangerous meth addictions can be.  We had a neighbor that put me in fear constantly because of his addictions and the people those brought to our neighborhood.  His rages were legend.  You always knew when he was high and angry.  I could handle high and giddy, but the rages were terrifying.  Meth is a demon, an ugly witch that weaves a spell of destruction, and sometimes death on its willing victim. And all his parents could do was stand by helplessly while being told that bizarre behavior wasn’t cause for arrest, no matter what his history was.

Even though his parents knew he was at risk and back on drugs again this past week, their hands were tied. They called the police, but were told there was nothing they, or anyone else could do until he actually committed a crime. And when he finally did commit that crime, it was so ugly, so violent, so OPPOSITE who he is, that it’s likely that he will now spend the rest of his life in prison. If the DA chooses to prosecute each of these charges separately, he will fall under the three strikes law and will have a mandatory life sentence. I cannot imagine being a parent and knowing that my kid has made choices that placed him in that position. Yet, his parents knew that the only hope for any intervention with this addiction was going to be via law enforcement, because there was nothing else available to them. The ugly reality was this: If he were in jail, he would be away from the drugs.

Isn’t there a better way? Can’t we as a society figure out some other solution to these addictions other than letting them get to critical mass and then using the criminal justice system to stop them after the fact? I’m not sure if it was good or bad that his parents couldn’t intervene. On the one hand, having their hands tied also absolves them of liability. On the other hand, (what I consider the moral hand) had they had any recourse to intervene, they would have and they would have taken whatever steps they needed to take to keep him from being a danger to himself and others, and a little girl wouldn’t be recovering from her second surgery in the hospital tonight.

Many of the commenters on the article about this on our newspaper’s website are harsh, saying that they wish he’d have been shot and died as a result of his assaults. They do not know him, of course, and their introduction to him is a newspaper article detailing senseless, violent, murderous acts toward others. It’s not surprising that they’d react that way, but in the end, it could have happened to any of us. Meth is not a discriminate demon; it latches onto whatever will allow it to and burrows in until it’s dug in so deep it can’t be excised without performing a damn exorcism. I hate it. I despise it. I wish beyond all else that he had not discovered it. I wish he had understood what risks he was taking when he first tried it.

If any good comes out of this, let it be that one moment is taken with our kids to teach them why they HAVE to stay away from this evil, horrible drug and the risks associated with it.  Maybe this story will stop someone else from giving into the temptation to try it, to touch it, to even consider experimenting with it.  I think if that happened his parents would feel as though something positive came from what is surely the worst thing they can imagine.  It would also be nice if the police in that area would dig down, find whatever resources they need to find, and start rooting out the dealers from that area.  There are many — it’s an affluent area that is well-known for easy access to just about any drug one seeks.  

All I know is that I have friends in deep and unrelenting pain, their son is sitting in jail where he may possibly be for the rest of his living days, and an eight-year old child will have much to overcome in her future.  At least she has one.

¹ I use the term allegedly for legal reasons, because he is charged but not convicted.

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Tags: meth, addiction, crime, drugs