By Emily Green, Photo: Emily Green/The Lund Report, The Lund Report, May 24, 2022
For most of her adult life, Crystal Johnson was, as she puts it, a minivan-driving soccer mom. A life-long resident of Newport, the affable 49-year-old thought the meth addiction she battled in her early 20s was behind her. But when the youngest of her four children was in high school, a family crisis sent her reeling. Knowing meth would take the pain away, she dove back in.
The only way to explain how she went from being a homemaker one day to putting needles in her arm the next was that her “brain broke,” she said. “I felt bad, and I wanted to feel better — and also at the same time just feel worse.”
Meth can be one of the toughest addictions to treat, but research shows that people who use meth are more likely to stick with treatment programs when they receive rewards for staying drug free. It’s a method called “contingency management,” and in Oregon, it’s about to get a lot more funding.
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