If your currently feeling at all down about yourself or life in general, then help is at hand in the form of Louis Theroux's latest documentary The City Addicted To Meth. It focuses on a place called Fresno in California. A place so shit that there's nothing to do but smoke crystal meth.
In the show we are shown a range of users of crystal meth, from the young hoodlums, to the long time users....and that's it. But one thing all the users in the show have in common is their horrific up bringing and current situation, which they seem to treat extremely lightly. Whether their parents were too busy smoking meth till their brains turned into a carbonated drink, arrested or were generally not around, or were raped by meth dealers as kids (yeah it gets mentioned in passing, no biggy), which to you and me sounds horrific but in Fresno thats just life as usual. Perhaps it's this casual attitude to the darker side of life which becomes so creepy and unnerving.
Louis gets to spend some quality time with a group of guys who all smoke meth, one of which started when they were 11. I preferred video games but what ever floats your boat. They go back to the one mans house where they're joined by more guys to hang out and smoke. While they're hanging out there are a bunch of kids running around. Then some more of this guys friends turn up with a bunch of electrical equipment, stereos, DVD plays and Louis asks "where did they come from?" and one of them replies "someone's house" while this is hilarious you can't help but think some poor bastard's just been robbed. At one point one of the mash heads asks if Louis is temped to try some meth, needless to say he doesn't but in the name of impartial journalism I can't help but feel he should have.
Another thing you'll notice as the show progresses is that these meth heads all have kids. Not just the one kid though, five. For some reason meth makes you want to get down and jiggy. So you end up with drug heads with five kids who they can't look after because they're too busy smoking meth or slammin meth, which is injecting it. This is the method of choice for Carl, one of the individuals featured in the show. He and his wife Diane are long term users, they don't see there kids or have jobs, yet some how they go through $100 a day on meth. It's not clear if that's each or as a couple but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say couple. So somehow this couple rinse through $700 of meth a week, $2800 a month, $33,600 a year. If that alone doesn't make you pull your poo face then this will; the woman is training to become a drugs councilor. Yeah that's right, the woman who pisses thousands of dollars a month on meth is training to become a drugs councilor. Well at least she'll know her subject matter, it's like having alcoholics anonymous meetings hosted by a pissed up tramp.
The last quarter of the show Louis catches up with some of the people he's met throughout the show. One lady in particular Sentika, who Louis met at a drug rehabilitation centre, then again when she got to visit her daughter is in jail. After leaving drug rehabilitation she moved back in with her boyfriend who is a meth head. Well there's your first mistake. She reveals that after meeting Louis the second time while visiting her daughter she went and got high. Nice.
Just when you think you've seen all the horrors and depravity mankind can offer, the show starts to wind down. The police just happen to come across a nut case going crazy at some woman. When they search the man the police find a big knife. Then the mans wife shows up and reveals that the woman he's fighting with is his sister and he has sex with her. Thats right, you read correctly. The meth head who's carrying the big knife is fighting with his sister who he also has sex with. So next time you think your life has shit the bed just think back to Louis Theroux's City Addicted To Meth and think hey at least I'm not having sex with a close relative and addicted to meth.
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