{"id":14790,"date":"2025-01-16T21:02:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T22:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14790"},"modified":"2025-01-16T23:09:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T23:09:29","slug":"the-naked-truth-about-wisconsins-crazy-meth-infestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14790","title":{"rendered":"The naked truth about Wisconsin\u2019s crazy meth infestation"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/the-naked-truth-about-wisconsins-crazy-meth-infestation\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We need to pay more attention to Wisconsin\u2019s most insidious drug problem<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are worse things than dying.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Graphic<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

That was the crazed, drug-induced argument of the naked-from-the-waist-down guy on meth with the dog leash around his waist\u00a0who broke into Shelly Weber\u2019s place begging to be shot because he was certain he was, according to Juneau County Sheriff\u2019s Department reports, infested with \u201cmudpuppies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also an argument \u2014 and not a crazy one this time \u2014 for paying more attention to the meth epidemic in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

We pay a lot of attention to heroin and fentanyl cases in the state because of the common misperception that people overdose only on narcotics. We pay less attention to the abundance of meth cases because there is sometimes a perception that meth \u2014 which is much more prevalent than fentanyl or heroin in Wisconsin by at least one measure \u2014 doesn\u2019t often kill the user.<\/p>\n

In truth, meth overdoses are pretty common and increasing. Drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants with abuse potential \u2014 that\u2019s primarily methamphetamine, to use the full name \u2014 rose from 5,716 in 2015 to 34,022 in the United States in 2022, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The number has increased steadily regardless of whether opioids were also a cause.<\/p>\n

Users don\u2019t necessarily realize that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeroin and fentanyl are killing people; in their minds, this is not,\u201d said Rob Walensky, investigative coordinator for the West Central Metropolitan Enforcement Group, a multi-county task force in western Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The statistics don\u2019t bear out that belief. You can overdose on meth. But death should not be the only thing users or the rest of us fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of violence associated with it,\u201d said Walensky. \u201cThey are so jacked up and\u00a0it lasts so long in their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walensky says it seems like everyone he runs into has a little meth on them.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the drug most often identified in samples sent by law enforcement to the State Crime Lab was meth, which accounted for 1,378 of the 4,805 samples tested \u2014 more than cocaine or heroin or fentanyl or even THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. Cops and prosecutors don\u2019t send all the drugs they recover to the lab, and pot usage, rarely prosecuted<\/a> nowadays, is surely much more prevalent in the state than meth usage. But meth, at least by the one measure of Crime Lab analysis, may be more widely abused than any of the other harder drugs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Man with a leash and a problem<\/h4>\n

Too many people see drug use nowadays as a victimless crime, said Walensky, because they don\u2019t see the repercussions.<\/p>\n

Shelly Weber did.<\/p>\n

I initially called Weber, a supervisor in the Town of Kingston in Juneau County, to ask about decreasing population trends in rural Wisconsin. Our state is going to lose more than 180,000 people between 2020 and 2050, according to recent projections, and much of the loss will come in small towns such as Kingston, which only had 57 people in 2020 and could just about disappear by 2050.\u00a0The conversation quickly pivoted to\u00a0the local \u201cmeth heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a meth problem,\u201d she said, \u201cin Mather,\u201d an unincorporated area in the town.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t believe what she told me next. But it\u2019s all in a Juneau County Sheriff\u2019s Office report from March 2020 detailing an incident at Weber\u2019s residence. Shortly before 4 a.m., a 23-year-old Wisconsin Rapids guy who later told investigators he had used meth four days in a row showed up threatening to kill everyone, according to the reports.<\/p>\n

Weber\u2019s boyfriend at the time found the man standing inside the house and told him to get out. The man complied and went out onto the porch. But as Weber and her friend called 911, the man demanded to be let back and threatened to \u201cstab all of you,\u201d according to the reports. He broke the glass on the door and, as he was trying to get back inside, was shot by the former boyfriend.<\/p>\n

One of the first deputies on the scene found the 23-year-old lying half-naked on the floor of an enclosed porch with gunshot wounds to his abdomen and left shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave them, I mentioned a 110% I was literally going to kill them if they did not shoot me,\u201d the bleeding man said to one of the deputies, according to the report. Asked why he wanted the residents of the house to shoot him, he replied to the deputies, \u201cbecause the mudpuppies are in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the deputies reported that the 23-year-old had a dog leash wrapped around his waist and \u201cwould scream things like, \u2018Here come the mudpuppies!\u2019\u201d He said he wanted the deputies to \u201ccut him open and take out the \u2018mudpuppies,\u2019\u201d\u00a0according\u00a0 to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked (him) why he had a dog leash wrapped around him,\u201d wrote a deputy. He \u201csaid he was putting a tourniquet on himself.\u201d He said \u201cthe \u2018mudpuppies\u2019 were eating his arm and getting bigger\u201d and \u201cif we cut his hand, the \u2018mudpuppies\u2019 would come spewing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He \u201ctook a dog leash so he could wrap it around his stomach to prevent whatever was crawling up his legs from going further into his body,\u201d he also later told a detective, according to the reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever you do, do not charge those people\u00a0(for shooting),\u201d he also said, according to the reports. \u201cHe repeated they were forced to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guy\u2019s attorney, Gene Cisewski, declined to discuss the case from almost five years ago and, although he said he would try to pass along a message to call me, I never heard from the defendant. The man eventually pleaded guilty to felony bail jumping and criminal trespass to a dwelling, and a variety of other charges were dismissed but read in. He served time in jail and was also given probation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy did get clean and now leads a recovery group,\u201d said Weber.<\/p>\n

Unvarnished truth<\/h4>\n

Meth used to be cooked up in little rural labs. Now it\u2019s more likely to come in from out of state. Walensky says his group tries to target the source of the stuff, and there\u2019s some headway being made there. Just a couple of weeks ago, a Wausau guy, Quo Vadis Lewis, was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of meth and 500 grams or more of cocaine.<\/p>\n

The judge in the case said the long sentence was necessary to protect the public, and alleluia. Meth users are victimizing people all over Wisconsin. They need to be prosecuted. They also, early on, need to be told what\u2019s in store for them along with prison.<\/p>\n

Juneau County now has an Adult Drug Treatment Court. It did not handle Cisewski\u2019s client\u2019s case but, coincidentally, Cisewski represents the defense bar there and says meth is the biggest drug problem.<\/p>\n

Part of the solution, in addition to treatment, he suggests, is giving everyone the unvarnished truth about what meth does.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe upfront,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is important. Long-term meth use completely scrambles the brain wiring.\u201d He has watched clients descend into addiction. \u201cTeeth rotting out. Twitches and tics in jail still after five days awaiting bond. You\u2019ll start seeing red, blotchy things that are itchy. You know these are just symptoms that show up with meth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to mention the way you might just come to believe in mudpuppies that are worse than death.<\/p>\n

Mike Nichols is the President of the Badger Institute.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute President Mike Nichols at\u202f<\/em>mike@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>\u202for 262-389-8239.<\/em><\/p>\n

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