Methamphetamine use in Sampson County is alive and well in Sampson County, and it is continuing to destroy families and ruin the lives of young and old alike.

With one hit, addiction can come. With one mistake, death can occur.

Sound frightening? It is.

Methamphetamine, or gas as it is often referred to by users, is becoming the drug of choice. It’s cheap to produce, cheap to buy and produces a high that keeps you up, sometimes for days on end.

Problem is — other than the fact that it is illegal and highly dangerous — this drug is perhaps one of the fastest to addict a user and one of the most difficult substances to get a handle on once addiction happens.

The drug itself can be dibilitating, causes great weight loss, sleeplessness and the usual actions — no inhibitions, often erratic behavior and little ability to make choices — that you find when you take a drug.

Then there’s the ingredients, which are easy to buy and easy to mix into the illegal elixir that is luring so many. But it’s as explosive as it is addictive. Mixing the drug — which can happen in the back of a (car), in an apartment, in a warehouse, just about anywhere — can be lethal.

But despite all the dangers, it continues to lure many of our neighbors and friends into its trap, and its changing their lives forever.

Local law enforcement authorities and civic-minded individuals are working together to educate people to the harmful effects of the drug and, at the same time, trying to remove it and those who produce it from our streets.

But the problem still exists.

Take the recent arrest of a Roseboro man who, according to reports, had the ingredients used to manufacture the highly-powerful drug.

What’s more, agents said the suspect was apparently “cooking” some of the ingredients in a small wooden shed behind his residence, just off Mandolin Lane.

To make matters worse, a child was in the home at the time the ingredients, which can be higly explosive, were reportedly being cooked.

Also found during the arrest were multiple weapons and items that will likely be linked to as many as 10 different break-ins around the county, yet another set of criminal behaviors attached to meth use and meth production.

We are not sure what it will take to convince people in this county that meth is a very dangerous, highly addictive and far-reaching drug that can impact everyone in its wake.

It seems some Sampsonians cannot be lured away from the drug, no matter the dangers and no matter the consequences.

It’s a painful reality of the drug culture that exists here and across the country. Law enforcement should continue doing everything possible to get meth off our streets, users into rehabilitation and dealers behind bars, realizing that they may can’t stop it, but they sure can put a serious dent in a far more serious problem.