At the intersection of Archeology and Addiction

White County Sheriff Pat Garrett [Great name! -- D.] said that 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," Sheriff Garrett said.

Tony Young of Velvet Ridge said the sheriff is on to something. "You get kind of wired on that stuff, and you need to have something to do," said Mr. Young, who is in the White County jail awaiting trial on methamphetamine charges. Mr. 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," Mr. Young said. "You get to looking, and an arrowhead catches your eye."

Many nights Mr. Young found himself in fields full of fellow arrowhead hunters. Now he 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 Mr. 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.

Rather. I wonder how many of the non-drugged searchers are obsessive-compulsives? Full story here; thanks to reader Rupert Goodwins for the pointer.

Posted by David on September 20, 2005 9:27 AM