Well, thank God for our resolute Governor, who fought tweakers tooth and nail by making cold remedies prescription-only! Who knows how many charities might have been ripped off if not for his bold action?

Thank god we have a new nameless, faceless villian to blame all society's problems on - the "evil tweaker." They smell bad, have rotten teeth, oozing faces, no morality, and... master criminal minds. Amazing.

Ever stop to think that this mentality might be contributing to cops' attitudes when they approach "odd" people on the street? Chasse was - after all - purported to be a crack fiend with 14 prior arrests. Which, if true, would have made it all OK.

I don't think tweakers have the discipline, time, talent, or energy to chisel 140 tiles off of a wall.

Dave J, then you would probably be surprised at the amazing things your average speedfreak can do. Surprised first, then probably a little scared.

Dave J, then you would probably be surprised at the amazing things your average speedfreak can do.

There's a difference, I think, between can and would. The tile thing smacks of straight vandalism, not unlike the ass clown who brought down the Personal Telco antenna on Mississippi St a few months back. Tweakers want cash quickly. How much quick cash is there in chipped tile?

If they've got the time and skill to take apart guard rails on bridges, I think they can handle some tile. I don't know if it was tweakers on Alberta, but it clearly was at Free Geek.

Straw man, I'm not blaming anything on tweakers other than theft everywhere they turn. And what this has to do with police brutality, I have no clue. The Portland police stopped caring about property crime long ago.

How much quick cash is there in chipped tile?

As much as in twisted copper? Besides, the relevant question is how much would a meth head think it was worth.

If they've got the time and skill to take apart guard rails on bridges, I think they can handle some tile.

I think they're willing to invest the labor in just about anything if it means quick cash. Scrap rail is easily sold. Scrap tile, I'm guessing, not so much. At least not the same bang for your buck.

The tile vandalism strikes me more as fitting into the "stupid/ironic vandalism that bored emo kids would find amusing" rather than the type of crime committed by tweakers.

But, yeah, agreed that Portland policy removes what is pretty much the only deterrent to petty theft, jail time.

When you marginalize any segment of society - even pathetic, despicable tweakers - it becomes easier to marginalize other groups.

Don't you think the umpteen million tales of super-strong, irrational, completely immoral and crazed meth heads contribute in any way to the way cops approach and deal with those who are dirty, acting "oddly," or otherwise different?

Read the cops' own testimony in the Chasse case. They didn't think Chasse and the first guy they originally stopped for (the drunk on the steps) were together because the drunk was clean cut and Chasse had long greasy hair.

In the usual attempt to justify their actions to witnesses at the scene, they lied and said Chasse was a crack head w/ 14 priors. How much stink would this have made if this were the truth, Jack? Be honest. Not much. Even if Chasse was mentally ill, it would have been blamed on the drugs and dropped.

So when it's OK to beat (or shoot) tweakers to death, it's not a far cry for some to think it's OK to do the same to other groups. Especially those that act or look or are the same in some people's eyes - like the mentally ill.

Does that explain it?

Oh, and BTW, show me the data that proves that tweakers are responsible for all the crime, theft, whatever. If you're referring to that joke of a report put out a year or so ago, gimme a break. Surveys of some cops impressions (and which influences their sources of funding) does not provide definitive proof of anything.

Sorry, don't mean to be contentious here. But perhaps we should deal with the issues that lead to so many tweakers - and it ain't the availability of Dimetap I'm talking about. Poverty, hopelessness, need... Say what you will, no one I know got hooked on the shit because they wanted their life to go down the tubes. It was already there.

Clackamas County is always referred to as tweakerville. What I see here is people - generations even - of people who depended on logging. They're broke, out of work, untrained for anything else, depend on 2nd class services, transportation, economic development.

Give people something better to hope and work for and most wouldn't need meth.

This is sort of off topic, but the alleged meth epidemic is just not supported by any data. That being said, tweakers do steal some stupid crap...the ones in my neighborhood steal aluminum ladders and spend hours breaking them down into nearly worthless scrap. $100 ladder + 5 hours labor = $3.75 in aluminum scrap, cash money dollar dollar bill. Meth or no, that's a tweaker perpetrating that crime.

There was a house being remodeled up the street from my mom's house that had all of it's newly installed wiring ripped out of the walls and stolen, undoubtedly by a tweaker.

The funny thing about this story is the thief didn't notice the $1000 worth of sink fixtures laying on the floor with receipt attached.

Straw man is swallowing another myth about meth addicts- that they all were already at the bottom when they started digging their hole. Plenty of them had great jobs and started the stuff to "keep up" and kept at it. There are functioning addicts of various kinds (heroin addicts tend to function very highly, as well as a lot of very serious drunks), but you won't find a highly functioning meth addict that stays that way for long.

Two times through rehab (although not for speed) and friendships across all economic strata have shown me a lot more than i ever, ever wanted to know about human beings. And i am, unfortunately, intimately familiar with the "meth epidemic". Too many of my friends have been chewed up and spit out by that stuff, and every single one of them knew it was death in disguise before they ever tried it.

There's plenty of a market for the tiles. Oblivious decorating companies, contractors, markets for "reclaimed construction materials" that usually specialize in old brick, old timbers and plank flooring, vintage tile, and things like outsider art. Then there are also the people who buy anything that even remotely looks like it could be art, for whatever reason they do that. A fast talking addict could turn each tile into another bag with one of them. All you need is the right connection and anything shiny or pretty can net a couple of dollars.

Apparently my pseudonym is lost on pril. Never did I say that they ALL were already at the bottom when they started "digging their hole." I do not know ALL tweakers, and that's all I spoke for.

And the assertion that a great job is one that you need the extreme effects of meth "to 'keep up' and kept at it," is a bit ironic IMO.

I'm buying into no myths about meth. I too, am intimately familiar with its effects on people, relationships, lives. Just as my experience does not necessarily = the truth, neither does yours or anyone else's. The only myth is that there is a "typical" meth addict.

And I agree with NorthwestT. The alleged meth epidemic is just not supported by any data. WillyWeek did an excellent expose on the O's blatant meth pandering. Meth's been around and been a problem for a long time. It's horrible stuff, there's no disputing that. But it's a disraction from the underlying issues.