In 2016, news reports warned the public of an opioid epidemic gripping the nation.
But Madeline Vaughn, then a lead clinical intake coordinator at the Houston-based addiction treatment organization Council on Recovery, sensed something different was going on with the patients she checked in from the street.
Their behavior, marked by twitchy suspicion, a poor memory and the feeling that someone was following them, signaled that the people coming through the centers doors were increasingly hooked on a different drug: methamphetamine.
When youre in the boots on the ground, Vaughn said, what you see may surprise you, because its not in the headlines.