The filmmaker speaks with several addicts and recovering addicts including 16-year-old Graham, a former straight-A student and athlete reduced to a shifty-eyed dropout after one year of using meth; 22-year-old Crystal, whose life has fallen apart in the three years she has used the drug and 21-year-old Rhianna, who traded “hard sex” for meth before she stopped using a year ago.
Prominently featured is a member of the Chippewa Cree tribe known as “Weasel,” a meth user for half of his 22 years who lives with his addict father and whose girlfriend had her two children taken away because of meth use.
The cheapness and availability of meth – which one Montana tribal leader describes as an epidemic – is taking a huge toll on the local Native American population.
Montana Meth explores the physical and psychological damage caused by this particularly vicious drug, whose effects range from tooth decay and skin lesions to brain damage and death. It also shows law enforcement and the justice system’s efforts to grapple with the magnitude of the problem.