Some simply call it methamphetamine. But Bridgette Brackall has her own name for the off-white powdery stimulant -- the "devil's drug."

Addicted to meth more than half her life, the 39-year-old Terre Haute woman currently is serving time for burglary and forgery charges she says were the result of her drug use.

"Meth has robbed me of happiness and well being and now my freedom," Brackall wrote in a letter from the Rockville Correctional Facility, a state prison for women in Parke County.

She is one of dozens of people who have responded in the month since the Tribune-Star ran a weeklong series "METHod of Madness."

The series, which ran Jan. 12-25, details the drug's impact on the criminal justice system, health care, businesses, addicts and children of users. Some of the articles featured efforts at bringing awareness to the problem and programs available to addicts. Many of the stories focused on what users have lost -- from their families and homes to their health and freedom.

"The articles hit home for me because I have lost everything also," Brackall wrote from prison.

While Brackall received a copy of the stories by mail from her mother, Carolyn Oliphant Suniga read the series on the Tribune-Star's Web site.

Suniga has seen the effects of meth in her job as an Owen County drug and alcohol probation officer.

"I had an addict in my office who told me: 'They don't call this Devil's Dust for no good reason.' It literally chokes the life of the user and the families involved," Suniga wrote by e-mail. "I commend you for exposing the darkness that has plagued our communities and families."

A narcotics officer in Sullivan County expressed his thanks to the Tribune-Star for helping educate the public on the problem he classified as an "epidemic."

"There is not a day or night that goes by that we are not dealing with meth," Sullivan County Sheriff's Deputy David Haddix wrote in a letter responding to the series.

Haddix described how Sullivan County is saturated by meth -- a drug that can be made from decongestant pills using widely available chemicals. In 2002, there were 59 drug lab busts in Sullivan County, more than double from 26 a year earlier.

"Unfortunately there is no 'leveling off' in sight," Haddix wrote. "These people become more refined and sneaky in how they 'cook' their dope and where they 'cook' it."

One Sullivan County man described the traffic past his house near the river bottoms. Sitting on his porch during the summer months, he watched car after car pass toward the Wabash River. The cars would return within 15 minutes -- not enough time for fishing, he noted in a phone message left at the Tribune-Star. The caller believes the passers-by probably were involved in making meth.

While many people in the Wabash Valley were aware of the problems of methamphetamine before the series was published, some got an introduction to the problem through the Tribune-Star articles.

In the days following the series, one woman phoned the Indiana State Police post in Terre Haute about possible meth lab-related trash. The caller told a trooper that she was able to identify the materials because she had recognized them from reading the newspaper series.

For Dorothy Goodwin, the series was a reminder that the problem of methamphetamine affects the quality of life for all residents of the Valley.

"Through those articles you've put a face on a problem that many of us dismissed as someone else's problem," the Terre Haute woman wrote.

Another reader -- the mayor of Paris, Ill. -- wrote that the extent of the problem is well beyond any one group.

"Your 'METHod of Madness' series has brought to the public's attention the fact that this 'madness' is more than [a] law enforcement problem, more than a court problem, and more than a school problem," Dale Francis wrote. "It is everybody's problem, and it will take the efforts of all citizens to 'stem the tide' of this growing madness."

Karin Grunden can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or karin.grunden@tribstar.com.