Addiction and Renewal in the Hoopa Valley (VIDEO)
This two-part series examines this issues on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation:
Part 1: A Community's Struggle with Addiction
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Addiction and Renewal in the Hoopa Valley (video)
Published on
June 14, 2012
By Jacob Simas and Allie Hostler
By 1990, methamphetamine - a.k.a. speed, crank, crystal, dope - was considered epidemic in the rural west and the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation was no exception. A 2006 Bureau of Indian Affairs report claims American Indians have higher rates of methamphetamine abuse than any other ethnic group - nearly three times higher than Caucasians.
Meth abuse rates have reached 30 percent on some rural Indian reservations, and in some Indian communities as many as 65 percent of all documented cases involving child neglect and placement of children in foster care can be traced back to parental involvement with methamphetamine.
[This article was originally published by New America Media.]