Not too long ago, Tina was clean. She'd graduated from a well-regarded residential treatment facility. She'd done outpatient therapy. She was working. She was sober. She attended support groups and 12-step meetings.

But her job at a sandwich shop paid $6.45 an hour, and Tina was barely getting by. She was living in a motel on North Temple with her toddler and wanted something nicer for her daughter. It turned out that her dope-dealing friend had a house, so she moved in with him. She stayed clean even then, living in the dope house.

She became pregnant and promised herself and her baby boy she wouldn't go back to meth. She stayed true to her word for a while. She didn't use through most of her pregnancy and for a while after he was born. But something got her down when she was a new mom and Tina decided to get high.

She knew it was wrong, knew she shouldn't. She even called the Poison Control Hotline. "How long will meth stayed in my breast milk?" she asked.

Twenty-four hours, they told her. Tina ended up staying high for six days.

"So my little boy who was only used to breast milk had to have formula that whole time."

Here's why members of Utah's largely conservative, religious, law-abiding state should care about a person like Tina. Here's why those who don't see the meth problem every day should take note:

A meth habit can run from $100 to $300 a day, and Deseret Morning News interviews with addicts, police and treatment providers found that few tweakers pay for their habit through legitimate means. They sell drugs or stolen property. Or they sell their bodies. They cruise neighborhoods, looking for open garage doors. They will steal your tools or your car or the checks from your mailbox.