There were more meth overdose deaths in Fresno County in 2020 than those of any other kind of drug, according to the coroner’s unit. National data shows deaths from methamphetamine and other psychostimulants are up 48% in the year from May 2020 through April 2021, accounting for more than a quarter of all overdose deaths in that time. Evolving production and distribution has kept supply plentiful – and lethal. Meth has also taken control of a large swath of Fresno, California. “And from then on, it just took control,” he says. That’s the lesson he says he got at the age of 13, when his older brother, the person he looked up to the most in the world, told him to try the drug. Nothing comes cheap and easy for him – except for methamphetamine. So now the 28-year-old is looking at a ticket on top of the registration and a late fee. Yes, the man tells CNN, he’d avoided getting a new registration, not wanting to spend the money.
So there he is, sitting on the cold curb at night, cuffed by the Fresno County sheriff’s deputies. But the expired registration on his car tag meant he could be pulled over.
