Inmate Speaks About Meth Addiction
From KELO Land TV

Internet Versions of KELOLAND News stories about Meth in the area:

'Cleaning Up the Meth Mess'

'Inmate Speaks About Meth Addiction'  

'KELOLand Woman's Struggle to Get Her Brother Off Meth'

'Breaking Free From Meth'    

'Meth Orphans'

Meth in the News

Originally found on KELO 08/08/2005

It's an addiction that can leave you not only clinging to life, but also your freedom.

Highly addictive methamphetamines are turning worlds upside down, dragging friends and family along for the ride. It's a story of one man's path of destruction and his fight to get back on track.

It's an unsettling feeling behind jail doors. For Tom Mahan, it's a feeling of last resort.
He says, "It got to a point where I needed to do it - I was stealing from my family, I just forgot it was a crime."

For three years, Mahan was addicted to meth. He says he craved the drug after the first time he used it. It's a feeling that continued until his world came crashing down, when the police knocked on his door.

Mahan says, "I kept running, they had guns to my head and I pushed them away."
Once in jail, Mahan's cravings didn't stop and withdrawal soon set in. He still wanted to use the drug and didn't worry about the consequences.

He says, "When I got here I kept waking up, not knowing where I was, would still have dreams about the drug."

He now spends his days and nights at the Minnehaha County Jail, never a minute alone, no way to turn back to his addiction that got him here in the first place.

Mahan wants to get into a program to turn his life around, but knows it will take a long time and a lot of work to stay clean.

He says, "It's still a struggle, the addiction, I still have cravings, even today."

But he knows there can't be a next time. He says, "If I could go back, I'd never do it."

Mahan now faces five years in prison, time he hopes will help get him on the road to recovery.

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