Methamphetamine usage is one of the most serious drug issues facing the US today. The dilemma begins with the ease of acquisition ? the drug is simple to make and what is not made in small neighborhood labs is readily available in large quantity on the global Black Market. The drug is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system and causes an intense craving much longer than that of most drugs.

Methamphetamine use has been reported by many law enforcement agencies to have been responsible for greatly increased incidents in robberies, burglaries and domestic violence. A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts cites the increase in methamphetamine use to be one of the primary causes of their prediction of rapidly escalating prison populations over the next five years.

Second Chance Center is offering a long-term criminal and drug rehabilitation program, as an alternative for the judiciary. ?In a typical treatment program the staff are having to deal with that heightened craving of meth and that puts a lot of pressure on the staff. Because they are not secure programs, the inmates can just walk right out the door.?, explains Rick Pendery, the national executive director of the Second Chance Centers. ?We have a secure treatment program. It looks a lot like a jail, with locked doors and barbed wire perimeter. However the entire security staff operate with the program staff to help rehabilitate the offenders sentenced here. They are sentenced by the judge for six to nine months, so they are not going anywhere. The biggest barrier any rehab center has is the intense craving that the participants exhibit, forcing them to take more meth. A program needs to be long enough to be effective at the same time providing an environment free of drugs or the chance for them to get any other drugs.?

A report written by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, updated in 2006, entitled, Methamphetamine, Abuse and Addiction, cited, ?With chronic abuse, tolerance to methamphetamine's pleasurable effects can develop. In an effort to intensify the desired effects, abusers may take higher doses of the drug, take it more frequently, or change their method of drug intake. Withdrawal from methamphetamine occurs when a chronic abuser stops taking the drug; symptoms of withdrawal include depression, anxiety, fatigue, and an intense craving for the drug. Chronic methamphetamine abuse also significantly changes the brain. Specifically, brain imaging studies have demonstrated alterations in the activity of the dopamine system that are associated with reduced motor speed and impaired verbal learning. Recent studies in chronic methamphetamine abusers have also revealed severe structural and functional changes in areas of the brain associated with emotion and memory, which may account for many of the emotional and cognitive problems observed in chronic methamphetamine abusers.?

A long-term detoxification program is used by the Second Chance Program to remove drug residues trapped in the fatty tissues of the body. ?Our program uses vitamin therapy, exercise and a unique sauna-based detoxification to release the drug metabolites, the residue remaining in the body's fatty tissues from the metabolism of drugs and flush them out of the system through sweating in the sauna.?, says Pendery. ?Extensive studies document that this protocol eliminates the stored metabolites. It has also been found that the presence of these drug metabolites create a ?biochemical personality? in which the person has a tendency to be less honest, more violent, more criminal and produce an increased craving for drugs. When these metabolites are released form the fatty tissues the participant's attention and ability to reason is improved. This helps some of those issues that are particular to a meth addict. This sauna detoxification module is based on the research of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse additionally reported that the abuse of methamphetamine also contributes to increased transmission of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, ?and can infuse whole communities with new waves of crime, unemployment, child neglect or abuse, and other

social ills. The good news is that methamphetamine abuse can be prevented

and methamphetamine addiction can be treated. People do recover, but only when effective treatments that address the multitude of problems resulting from methamphetamine abuse are readily available.?

The Second Chance Center is a 600-bed facility and is run inside a jail environment in Albuquerque, New Mexico.