The drug creates a psychological high rather than a physiological high. So people crave it. They remember their first high. They long for the drug and how it felt. But it takes more and more to achieve the same high. Before long, they no longer have the drug. It has them.

Women trying to kick meth often find their way to the Volunteers of America detox center on Salt Lake's west side.

"It's this or something ugly," director Katy Hilton said.

The center is somewhat antiseptic but does have some homey touches such as a reading room. It's not a jail. Each woman has a room and may have her children who are younger than 10 with her. The first couple of days are spent in the room.

"They just come in and sleep," Hilton said.

They're irritable and short-tempered. Many suffer from poor nutrition and are sickly thin. They have scratches on their arms from trying to rid themselves of invisible meth bugs.

Detox takes five to 10 days, and it's only the beginning to overcoming the addiction.

The saying on a wall calendar sums up how to approach the coming months and years: "Faith, Hope, Courage, Sobriety. One day at at time."

This is one of the programs where women can bring their children with them as they progress through treatment. They get a lot of help with parenting, learning, child care.

"You can't ask them to parent and get clean," said Penny Grant, a University of Oklahoma pediatrician who studies the effects of methamphetamine. "It can't happen with meth."

Women will not enter treatment and will not stay in treatment if they have to leave their children, according to Pat Fleming, Salt Lake County Substance Abuse Services director.

The Cottonwood Family Treatment Center is tucked away on a secluded street at the south end of Salt Lake Valley. Large trees guard the large old house and its spacious lawn on which rests a picnic table. Children's toys are piled near the entrance.

Sarah Hughes, 28, and her 2-year-old son moved in last April.

She is up at 6 a.m. doing chores, preparing meals and dressing her son. She attends group and individual therapy and parenting and job skills classes. She and others in the home are dealing with the guilt of neglecting their children in the past.

"We've been given a second chance with them, and we don't know what to do with it. We're learning what to do with it."

The rigid life is far from what she was used to while living in a shack subsisting on Ramen noodles and bingeing on meth.

Cottonwood, she said, took all that old stuff away and taught her how to be a person again.

"This place has done some reconstructive surgery on me, I guess you could call it."

Hughes is typical of women living in the house.

"It takes some time for them to find out who they are and be comfortable with that and accept it," said Susan Mitchell, program director.