Arizona tweakers must be different than California tweaker.  Here it's "where there's porn, there's meth"

Arkansas Sheriff Explores Link Between Meth and Arrowheads

ASSOCIATED PRESS



SEARCY, Ark. (AP) -- The time consuming and methodical motion of searching for arrowheads on farmland and in river beds seems to appeal to methamphetamine addicts, a sheriff says.

White County Sheriff Pat Garrett says after more than 100 search warrants, he has come to expect arrowheads, many thousands of years old, when he storms the home of suspected meth makers.

''I noticed it when I first started. It just seemed there were always Indian arrowheads and I couldn't figure it out,'' Garrett said.

Tony Young of Velvet Ridge says the sheriff is on to something.

''You get kind of wired on that stuff and you need to have something to do,'' said Young, who is in the White County jail awaiting trial on methamphetamine charges.

Young, 36, sold his arrowhead collection to a local dealer for $1,250 _ enough to pay for a defense attorney. He said ''head hunting'' filled his need for activity when he was on meth.

''You just get to walking and looking at the ground,'' Young said. ''You get to looking and an arrowhead catches your eye.''

Many nights Young found himself in fields full of fellow arrowhead hunters. Now Young is in jail, surrounded by fellow inmates who say they also searched for arrowheads before they were incarcerated.

''The strangest things you find out there is other dopeheads,'' said Young, who added that drug dealers and users often trade the arrowheads among themselves.

But local farmers find the groups of drugged arrowhead searchers an annoyance.

''To me arrowhead hunting is the same as me going to a stranger's garden and picking his tomatoes,'' said Jerry Smith, who farms in nearby Bradford. ''That land and what's on it belongs to me.''

The searchers also may be threatening the integrity of archeological sites, said Arkansas State archeologist Ann Early.

''It is very troubling for a variety of reasons that the culture of meth use has embraced the idea of collecting relics,'' Early said. ''I know that people using methamphetamine are out collecting at sites. Some have been digging at rock shelters in the Ozarks.''

While surface hunting for arrowheads is legal, trespassing and digging through archeological sites is illegal, Early said.

In April 1998, two Bentonville men were charged and later convicted of murder for leaving two young children in a hot unventilated car for about eight hours while they hunted for arrowheads. The men were under the influence of drugs at the time, police said.

It never ceases to amaze me how many arrowheads there are lying around. Did those indians live in compounds and have arsenals?

Quoted: It never ceases to amaze me how many arrowheads there are lying around. Did those indians live in compounds and have arsenals?

No,  they just screwed up a lot of arrowheads.  I've always had this mental picture of some poor guy sitting on a rock chipping away on a piece of flint and screaming CRAP!!  NOT AGAIN!!!  Then slinging the offending flint into the brush.

My mom just thinks it proves that Indians didn't have Dish TV.

Let the record state I have never used meth.  But I have hunted for arrowheads MANY times.

Quoted: Quoted: It never ceases to amaze me how many arrowheads there are lying around. Did those indians live in compounds and have arsenals? No,  they just screwed up a lot of arrowheads.  I've always had this mental picture of some poor guy sitting on a rock chipping away on a piece of flint and screaming CRAP!!  NOT AGAIN!!!  Then slinging the offending flint into the brush. My mom just thinks it proves that Indians didn't have Dish TV.

That's funny!

So they didnt have to worry about the APFB (arrowheads, peacepipes firewater and bows) JBTs busting in on their tee-pees?

"Arrowheads" are easily converted to cash if one has a client, and one can hunt when one wants to.  The clients don't ask questions because they're getting the artifacts at slashed prices and don't have to risk being caught digging for what they so dearly desire, and don't want to cut off the flow of points.  I suspect that since meth is supposidly so cheap and easy to make, that a supplier will accept good quality points for payment.  The activity is perfect for druggies.  

An acquaintence has shown me an 8-inch-long Clovis; made of pure white chert; thin and serrated that he swears he bought for $200.  It's too spectacular to be a real artifact, but this guy insists that the seller badly needs cash in a hurry, and frequently.  The same guy has shown me what was found as a cache of four, almost identical and LARGE, Lost Lake type points that were naturally cemented together over time.  ....Probably a unique find.  ....Again, $200.  The guy I speak of, buying the points, is not a druggie or a supplier, but a rich man and has a collection to die for.