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Death of a Client

To often in this business we meet people in the most unfortunate of circumstances.

That was the case with Amy.

Amy was a 26 year old mother of three who, when I was contacted by her grandmother for help, was incarcerated on a probation revocation.

At that time, Amy told me she had been 6 months clean, a statistic she was very proud of.

By 6 months clean, Amy meant she had not used methamphetamines, or meth, for 6 months.

Meth is a blight on our world. It is the most addictive drug available and is harder to break an addiction to than heroin. In fact, less then 3% of the users who become hooked on meth are able to break free.

In my time as an attorney I have only known a couple of people who were able to break their addiction to meth and live a happy life.

Amy would have been another. She broke the addiction on her own, or "cold turkey", with family support and by staying focused on her children. She and I had talked about what her future would be like and she was excited about the prospect of being able to talk to others in the hopes that they would either never become addicted or else be able to shake the monkey from their back.

Tragically, Amy was killed in a motorcycle wreck on September 11, 2006. She will be missed by her family and friends, among whose number I count myself. It is not often I get to meet people in my profession who have an effect on me, but Amy did and the world is a worse place without her.