An organization started to help methamphetamine addicts and their families is spreading across the country — including Iowa. Alabama doctor Mary Holley founded Mothers Against Methamphetamine — MAMa. She opened a Mother’s office about a year ago and in about a year’s time, she now has about 15-hundred chapters and six thousand people on her mailing list. She says the mailing list includes some people here in Iowa, but no official chapters yet. Lawyers for the organization are determining what it would take to have more “official” chapters. Holley started MAMa after her brother Jim got involved with the drug. She says about four years ago, her brother committed suicide on methamphetamine, and she’s a physician. She wanted to know what it was that made him kill himself like that — how did it make him so crazy. According to Holley, the information was out there in medical literature, but needed to be put in plain English. When she looked up and saw what it was that he’d gotten into, and saw the pictures of people’s brain scans, that made it obvious that there was some serious brain damage. She started teaching about it locally in the schools and the churches, and in the jails and the rehab centers. Now Holley is helping addicts and families with on-line resources and a toll-free number. She says the website gets about two or three thousand hits per day and the phone rings off the hook. For more information about Mothers Against Methamphetamine, surf to www. mamasite.net, or call 866-293-8901.