By?Dawn Slade
Mille Lacs County Times

The images were horrific and the message was clear. Do not try meth. You cannot control meth - meth controls you.

David Parnell was a featured speaker at Milaca High School, Princeton High School and Isle High School last week.

He spoke to students during the day and communities at night.

When he spoke to over 300 seventh and eighth grade students at Milaca High School, the students listened intently for nearly two hours.

They asked so many questions that they had to be stopped because time ran out and school was ending.

Parnellís story captures audiences with an ugly account of what addiction can do to a person and all those who love that person.

Parnell was an addict for 23 years. He was a convict who spent two years in prison. Prison, he said, is nothing like it is on TV. He was surrounded by murderers, rapists and child molesters.

He abused his wife and neglected his children. He finally stopped using meth when part of his face was blown off after he attempted suicide.

Child abuse

To the students and the roughly 300 audience members on Wednesday, April 5, Parnell addressed the child abuse that occurs when parents are on meth.

"Any children in a meth home are being abused, just as my children were, whether itís neglect or physical abuse," Parnell said.

Photographs of children with burn marks, black and blue eyes and bodies, ammonia burns and unthinkable abuse seemed to affect audience members even more than the photos of Parnellís face in a pool of blood after he attempted suicide.

Parnell said child abuse in Tennessee has risen over 500 percent in the past 10 years because of meth. In Willmar, Minn., he said, child abuse has increased 290 percent since 1997.

Tennessee has a new law called "The Baby Haley" law that provides for an increased sentence for meth offenders when there are children in the home.

Baby Haley had been abused so badly doctors had to surgically open her eyelids after her parents beat her and sprayed chemicals in her eyes as a form of punishment.

Parnell told of the neglect his own children suffered.

"I remember when my fridge was empty like that," he said, as a photograph of a refrigerator in a meth home was shown.

Parnell would try quitting meth, but would continue using marijuana.

He recalled how his wife Amy asked him to get milk for their children (they have seven together), instead he went out and purchased marijuana.

"If you donít think marijuana is addicting...," he said. "If I had never started marijuana, I wouldnít have used meth."

Not only are children abused, but many women and some men are as well.

"Every seven seconds a women is beat up in this country," he said. "Itís more likely every two to three seconds, because those are only the ones reported."

Abuse, he said, goes hand-in-hand with drugs and alcohol.

The former addict told of another child who had gotten into the parentsí meth and had eaten it. Instead of taking the child to the hospital, they let the child lie convulsing on the floor for 12 hours until the child eventually died.

His story

Parnell began his drug addiction at the age of 13 when he began smoking pot with his own father.

He had the opportunity to attend college through a basketball scholarship, but by the time he was a senior he was smoking pot daily and drinking on the weekends. College no longer mattered to him.

The first time he tried meth he was hooked, the former addict said.

"Ninety-five percent who try it, get hooked," he said. "It made me feel strong, full of energy. I could think clearly."

As Parnell showed pictures of meth addicts who had aged rapidly, addicts with sores covering their arms from syringes and from picking at their skin, addicts whose teeth were rotted, he said, "I remember thinking Iím never gonnaí let that dope control me.

"You donít control meth. Meth controls you."

Parnell told the audiences about the many times he would stay awake for days, sometimes nine to 10 days, and eat just two cheeseburgers during that time period.

He spoke of the hallucinations, the voices he heard and the "shadow people" he would see.

Parnell became violent toward his wife and became so tired of her trying to get him to quit, that he encouraged her to try it. She did.

And she became addicted, too.

With six children in their home, the couple would go to their "dope room" and smoke or eat meth while the kids tried to take care of themselves.

In his mind he wasnít abusing the children because he wasnít "doing" the meth in front of them. But the reality was, he said, "I was never there for them."

Eventually, Parnell became suicidal. He attempted to hang himself, but the rope broke and his sister found him.

"I know the Lord saved my life that day," he said.

Sober for five months following that attempt, Parnell returned to his meth friends and soon began using again.

Parnell felt the only way he could beat the drug was to kill himself. Voices told him his family would be better off if he were dead.

"Itís never the answer to problems," Parnell said of suicide.

His wife had stopped using, reached out to God and realized she couldnít live with Parnell any longer. She told him she wanted a divorce.

The voices got to Parnell and he attempted suicide once again. This time, in front of his wife, he put a gun to his chin and pulled the trigger. He shot his mouth, nose and eye with the pull of the trigger.

Instantly the pain hit him and instantly he wondered, "Why did I do this?"

Parnellís mother had been called by one of the children and she arrived moments after he pulled the trigger.

Before unconsciousness set in, he said the Lord gave him the ability to tell his mother and his wife that he loved them.

He was unconscious for three days and during that time his wife discovered she was pregnant with their seventh child.

With 30 titanium plates and screws in this face, it took him two months to learn to speak again. But, it was a year before people could understand him.

He has endured 20 surgeries (so far).

"I never got used to the noises and the voices I kept hearing," Parnell said. "Meth robs you of the ability to love and feel compassion for other people."

Dangers of meth labs

"If you come upon a lab, do not touch anything," Parnell warned.

Jars with liquid, tampered propane tanks and lithium batteries can be volatile.

Parnell told of meth labs in shacks where the manufacturers would rig a shotgun to a string attached to the door to prevent people from stealing meth or tampering with their lab.

"One thing all meth addicts share is paranoia," Parnell said. "I put 200 bullet holes in my house because I thought there were people there."

Thousands of meth recipes can be found on the Internet. The danger in that, Parnell said, is many are incorrect, which can lead to explosions and deadly consequences.

Advice to parents

"Look through your kidsí rooms," Parnell told parents. "Itís not an invasion of privacy. It means you love them enough to do that."

Parnell advised parents to look for straws, pipes, tinfoil, spoons with burnt residue, needles, empty plastic bags and other signs of drug use.

"There are 178,000 websites on how to manufacture meth. A lot of them are wrong," he said. "I have one hour to convince kids not to do dope. Drug dealers have every day."

Tell your children to be careful with their drinks. Meth can be easily slipped into a drink and the person wouldnít taste it.

Parnell said he will no longer drink out of a hotel coffee pot, because meth manufacturers are known to use motel rooms to cook meth and use the coffee pot to cook it.

Meth labs have decreased since the regulations on psuedoephedrine tables went into effect, however meth is being imported increasingly from Mexico.

"Every aspect of crime goes up when thereís meth in the neighborhood," he added.

Impact

Sue Lyback-Dahl of the Mille Lacs Area Substance Abuse Prevention (MLA SAP) Coalition, said of the Isle presentation, "I am encouraged by the eveningís large turnout for our small area, somewhere between 250 and 300 folks.

"Mr. Parnellís presentation was intense and thought-provoking. My hope is that it will nudge people toward further collaboration and mobilization to address substance abuse prevention in our area.

"It always comes down to the need to build a healthier community in a wholistic way. No effort to make our communities stronger and healthier, however small it may seem, is ever wasted."

Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren, who attended the Isle presentation, said Parnellís talk was beneficial for those attending as well as the sheriffís office (he received some drug leads from people who attended the presentation).

"I think itís good for the community to hear it from the perspective of the addict whose life was controlled by the drug," Lindgren said. "I think it has a more powerful impact."

Lindgren also said, "The more who are educated, the more people who can help identify users. Two years ago there wasnít 500 people in the county who knew about meth. Thanks to the efforts of law enforcement, the media and coalitions, thereís now about 5,000 people who know."

Parnell answered several good questions from students.

One student asked about his own brother who had been on meth for six years and questioned his brotherís health.

Parnell told him to have his brother get checked by a physician especially for cancer, as well as his kidneys, thyroid and blood pressure.

"What do you wish you could change?" a student asked.

"Taking a hit off that first joint," Parnell replied.

Another student asked how to get someone off of meth.

"We canít force them. Tell them you love them. Tell them itís killing them," he said. "But, ultimately itís up to the user."

"Do you feel like God put you here to stop meth?" another asked.

"Yeah, I feel like he did," Parnell responded soberly.

To addicts, he said, "Donít ever give up. We all make mistakes. We all stumble. Get back up and dust yourself off. Donít ever give up."

Parnell has been sober since Feb. 21, 2003 - the day he tried to kill himself.

Editorís Note: For more information on Parnell and meth visit www.facingthedragon.com.

For information about the Mille Lacs County Meth Education and Drug Awareness Coalition (MEADA), contact Dawn Slade at 320-983-6111 or Brenda Hoffman at 1-800-964-8524.

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Mille Lacs County Times
225 2nd Street NW, P.O. Box 9
Milaca, MN 56353
Telephone: 320-983-6111 Fax: 320-983-6112