They know the stores where they don't have to show identification to write a check and get money back.

Albertsons lets you write a check for $50 over the amount without ID. So does Smith's.

In addition, your tax dollars are going to pay for treatment for the worst of the worst meth offenders — those who are arrested for drugs or any of dozens of crimes related to sustaining a meth habit.

"This is close to home. This is your mailbox. This is your garage," said Karen Williams, program director of the Women and Children's Center at Odyssey House.

Treatment providers, social workers and detectives came to a Salt Lake City conference on drug-endangered children this fall. Most of the presentations were about meth cases.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse asked participants to take great care in their efforts to stymie the cycle of drug use, crime, abuse and anti-social behavior that thousands of children are learning to model in Utah drug homes. "Breaking that cycle at whatever level we can is so important to the community and these children," he said.

---

"Where do I want my kids to find me when they come looking? Do I want them to find me in the gutter with tracks on my arm? No. I want them to find me clean and sober. But this disease is so mean. It grabs hold of you and doesn't let go." — Tina

---

Mothers like Tina are on every block of nearly every street throughout Utah. They come from rural and urban areas. Rich and poor families. They eat the white crystalline drug, snort it, smoke it from dirty glass pipes or inject it into their arms. Most have children close by as they use.

The stories the women tell are tragic. The lives their children lead are heartbreaking.

"When I was using, the kids knew what to do if they came across a needle," said Susan Martin, 32, who was just paroled from Utah State Prison in October and is the mother of three.

"They knew what to do when Mommy was dope sick. They knew how long I needed to sleep. The kids knew what the paraphernalia was all about; the kids knew how to watch for the cops."

For all practical purposes, treating female addicts like Martin is the key to tackling this problem in Utah.

Throughout the country, women prefer marijuana to meth. Not in Utah. Here, women who seek treatment say they choose meth over any other drug, including alcohol. Of greater concern, according to the paper presented this fall to the Utah Behavioral Healthcare Network, is that two-thirds of these women have dependent children. The majority of women eating, smoking or shooting meth are in child-bearing years.