Women falling prey to meth

DES MOINES, Iowa — To outsiders, Debra Breuklander appeared to be a tireless single mother of three. She had an immaculate home in a middle-class suburb, perfect credit and was a homeroom mom at her children's schools.

She also was taking methamphetamine and selling the drug to make ends meet.

"I thought I was 'Super Mom' and I was doing everything right," said Breuklander, 43, now serving a 35-year prison sentence. "In actuality, my thinking was so twisted. I was doing everything wrong."

Breuklander is among a growing number of women who have abused meth, a highly addictive stimulant that produces a euphoria similar to cocaine but lasts longer and is made from common household ingredients.

Experts and users say meth appeals to women because it's relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain, and it gives them energy to take care of their children or feel more efficient in everything they do.

"There's no comparable drug that we've ever seen as long as I've been in substance abuse that appeals to women as much as meth does," said B.J. VanRoosendaal, spokeswoman for the Utah State Division of Substance Abuse.

Nationally, women made up 47 percent of patients in substance abuse treatment centers who identified meth as their primary drug of use in 1999, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In Iowa, 43 percent of women entering prison in the first quarter of fiscal 2002 said meth was their drug of choice, compared with 29 percent of men. In fiscal 2000, it was 25 percent of women and 19 percent of men.

More than 40 percent of women arrested in the counties surrounding Honolulu and San Jose, Calif., in 2000 tested positive for meth use, a National Institute of Justice program found, and the figure was more than 20 percent in several other areas studied.

Miranda Charbonneau, like Breuklander an inmate at Iowa Correctional Institution in Mitchellville, said she turned to meth after previously using marijuana. It soon became an obsession for the then 16-year-old who had left school and was working.

Every day, the focus was, "where I could get it, who I could get it from, how much was it going to cost me . . . and what was I going to have to give up to get it," said Charbonneau, 23, who is serving 10 years for child endangerment.