Many parents trying to escape the chaos of inner city life move their families to seemingly safe places like the midwest, unaware of the serious "crystal meth" problem.

"Don't come here," said "Leonard", a 24-year old addict from Joplin. "It's the same thing going on here that's going on in the big cities as far as drugs."

"Leonard", a high school dropout who started using crystal methamphetamines when he was 14, said the small town life is no different than that in metropolitan areas.

"The amount of speed you can get here is incredible," he said. "Probably even better than it is in the city."

He said when he first started using the drug, he thought it was fun and gave him a great amount of energy. He said it later ceased being fun and he got hooked. That's when he said he went from snorting it to smoking and shooting intravenously.

"Most people that I knew that did it when we all started doing it were snorting it," he said. "You either get hooked on smoking or shooting it up, and most people that shoot it up usually end up doing nothing with their lives but trying to find another needle."

"It wasn't the most important thing in my life, but it kept me running because I was tired all the time because I stayed up."

He said it was easy to come by and that, in his case, he never had to pay for it.

"I knew people that made it so I never really had to pay for it," he said. "The girl I was dating was connected with a bunch of people."

"Leonard" said he never himself manufactured the drug, but did encounter someone creating it in their kitchen.

"The way I saw it done was in a pan," he said. "They had already mixed everything together and were cooking it up in a pan."

The Joplin area has a notorious reputation as one of the "meth capitals" of the midwest. There has been an increase in the number of homemade laboratories in the area since the early 1990s.

"There's a bunch of people trying to cook it because it's easily done, cheaply made, and you can make a ton of money."

Availablity, according to "Leonard," is the key reason why the drug has been so successful in the area.

"There's speed everywhere," he said. "You can go on every corner of this town and there's somebody with speed."

"Leonard" has been in treatment three times and has battled his addiction for nine years. At first, he said he hadn't used meth in a long time, but later retracted that statement.

"I quit about a year ago, but I did it again like three months ago."

He seemed unsure why he again used the drug.

"I felt like it. I wanted to. I woke up that day and I really wanted to do speed."

"Jim" is a 23-year old Joplin native who has lived in the St. Louis area for several years. His first experience with crystal meth was when he was 17.

"I was always up for new experiences," he said. "It seemed like the right thing to do just to get another new experience under my belt."

He said his freinds did not influence him and he only used the drug about five times.

"It kept me up way too long," he said. "It was like drinking a bunch of coffee. There was no euphoric feeling associated with the drug."

"Jim" called it a "hillbilliy drug" that he believes is deadly. However, he did sell it several times to friends.

"The kid down the street was dealing it out of his house, so I always had the hook-up for them," he said. "In return, I'd make $10-$15."

He said that his time with the drug has been over for a long time and he feels he will never use it again.

"I can just drink coffee if I need to stay up," he said. "There's not much to do in Joplin to cause you stay up for 36 hours."