The most deadly recreational drug has become the most popular, in Monterey County and everywhere.

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If Abbruzzetti’s story has a point, it’s that meth is everywhere. In the last decade this amphetamine derivative has rapidly clawed its way up the recreational drug chain to perch upon the throne like some mad, toothless king. Traditionally it’s been a domestic drug. It’s made here and it’s made cheaply. It makes users feel like superheroes—10-feet-tall and bulletproof, supremely confident and optimistic, even as it devastates their bodies, minds and lives. And it is lethally addictive. As a result, there is no demographic for meth users.

“Demographically it reflects the community,” says Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Todd Hornick. “It’s across the board. It’s certainly not ethnic or age or class specific. It runs the gamut.”

A majority of meth users go about their addictions while holding down jobs and raising families. For those who can maintain the habit, meth is just another substance. Seemingly “normal” people have the stuff on hand.

For example, Ashley Smith, the cute, innocent-looking 27-year-old widowed mother who was taken hostage by suspected Atlanta courthouse gunman Brian Nichols last March, recently disclosed that she was an addict, and that she gave her captor methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal last March.

As Hornick points out, our idea of the stereotypical meth user only comes from those people who get busted.

“In my experience, I’ve found drugs to be readily available across all classes. I don’t believe that the people in Pebble or Carmel aren’t getting high on meth,” Hornick says. “It’s just that users in Chinatown or North Fremont are readily perceptible. They’re easier targets.”

Hornick suggests that the same is true for all crime, including theft, burglary, or even domestic violence.

In the same way that the bucolic PG neighborhood hid Abbruzzetti’s operation, meth users may be able hide in the suburbs better than they can in cities.

“In an apartment complex where people are sitting one on top of the other, domestic violence is going to make a whole lot of noise and bring the cops quicker,” Hornick says. “If you’re standing in Chinatown smoking a rock or sitting on the railroad tracks shooting heroin, there’s just a better chance that you’ll get seen.”

From Abbruzzetti’s booking photo you wouldn’t guess it, but the man was a graduate of Humboldt State University with a degree in chemistry. He had been a long-term substitute teacher at Pacific Grove Middle School, and had even served in the community as a youth recreation coach before devoting himself completely to meth. Thanks to a clean prior record, he received only one-quarter of the maximum penalty for his crime. He is currently serving a five-year sentence at the California Correctional Center up in Susanville.