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Lisa Ling Meth really is the mother of all drugs. It's the cheapest, dirtiest and most powerful drug in existence today. It's also the fastest spreading. Meth doesn't kill its addicts immediately. The process is slow, during which it takes an extreme physical and psychological toll. Meth literally rots people's bodies—teeth, face and insides. Frankly, I was appalled by how ugly it made frequent users.

Photo by David Ross Smith

I explored the impact meth is having on societies in Portland, Omaha and Bangkok. The reasons people start using the drug differ from city to city. In Portland, I was shocked to learn that 80 percent of that city's prisons hold people on meth-related charges. Whether the charges are for drug dealing, identity theft or armed robbery, somehow they are connected to meth. Portland's hospitals are overwhelmed by patients admitted for meth abuse. I've always considered Portland to be one of the most beautiful cities in the U.S., but meth's impact on it has been tremendously ugly. But there is hope. Addicts can recover. I had the privilege of meeting a man in Portland who is six months into recovery. His name is Kobe. Kobe was very good looking, smart and athletic when he got addicted. But meth nearly destroyed his life. I was amazed after I heard his story that he was even alive. The most poignant part of his story was that his parents, who are loving and middle class, told me what a relief it was to learn that he had been arrested and jailed … because that meant they knew where he was and that he was alive.

Photo by David Ross Smith

I also met a young woman in jail named Julie. She was a prime example of how meth deteriorates a person, inside and out. She was incredibly paranoid, even though she has been clean since her incarceration. I saw pictures of Julie before she became addicted to meth—she had been so attractive. It was truly heartbreaking to see what the drug had done to her. Her face was riddled with pockmarks from sores that had gotten infected and her teeth were totally rotted from years of grating and negligence.

Correspondent Lisa Ling documented the experience of filming this special from El Salvador to Los Angeles. Below are accounts of some of her chilling experiences, including finding out that she and her crew had been targeted for kidnapping and touring MS-13 controlled territory in Los Angeles with an active MS-13 member. Lisa Ling Growing up in Los Angeles, it’s hard not to notice the graffiti that covers the sides of buildings, walls, fences and trucks in many parts of the city. It looks like meaningless scribble, but it’s used to mark territory. Though it is home to Hollywood and the entertainment industry, large swaths of the city are also claimed by violent street gangs. If you’re a gangster and walk into territory claimed by a rival gang, you could be shot to death without question. Although there are over 100 known gangs in L.A., my encounters with gangsters had been pretty limited. I thought I could identify them by their shaved heads, baggy pants and tattoos, but then “gangsta” style became cool and it became impossible to single out individuals as bonafide “bangers.” A gang called “White Fence” controlled the area where I was working in the ‘90s. I’d also known about the gangs plaguing the L.A. streets, particularly the big ones like the “Bloods,” “Crips” and “18th Street.” I recall hearing about a small Salvadoran gang with a really long name – Mara Salvatrucha – that was considered somewhat insignificant relative to the bigger more established gangs. For those reasons, law enforcement paid little attention to it and focused their efforts at suppressing other gangs. Big Mistake. In a very short period of time, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has arguably become the biggest and most dangerous gang in the world. In the 1980's a law was enacted that would deport non-U.S. citizens convicted of serious crimes back to their home countries after serving their sentences. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of criminal offenders, including thousands of gang members, being returned to countries that had never encountered gang problems – such has been the case with El Salvador. Rather than return to the U.S., many gang members stayed in their home countries and brought gangbanging culture with them. Law enforcement officials (who’ve served as journalistic sources for me in the past) have kept me up to date on the issues keeping them the busiest. Over the last couple of years, several of my gang detective colleagues urged me to take a deeper look into MS-13 because members were starting to show up in many different parts of the U.S. and other countries. They were also beginning to perpetrate heinous acts of violence in areas that had never experienced such things before. The gang started to grow so fast that a federal task force was created to deal specifically with MS – a big deal considering that it started as a small L.A. street gang. My first foray into the world of MS came through a 20-year-old active member whom I call "Jester" in the show. He was jumped in (members viciously pound and kick the individual for 13 seconds, for the purposes of initiation) when he was only eight years old. Just a year later, at age nine, Jester was sent to “attack the enemy” – to walk up to a group of six rival gangsters and open fire. He was so scared he closed his eyes. After the shots went off, he saw that one guy had fallen—whether he survived is unknown. Jester says it’s the only time he ever felt sad or scared. He’s shot nearly twenty others since then. According to Jester, it’s either “him or me.” If he doesn’t shoot the enemy, the enemy will shoot him. I found out that several weeks after my interview with him, he and his homie were arrested for murder. When I got the call from a law enforcement officer, I felt sick. I had gotten to know Jester and he took me into his world, and now he was locked up and facing murder charges. He and his friends told me many stories of having to “do what they had to do,” in order to protect themselves and their neighborhoods. At the time I couldn’t distinguish between big talk and their reality. I guess it was their reality. Gangs operate as businesses in the criminal world. What’s disturbing is how young the recruits are and how vulnerable they are to indoctrination. The young boys are made to prove themselves through violence, and the faster one becomes a killer, the faster he or she will move up the ranks. Gangs are families who raise their kids to kill. With a presence in 33 U.S. states and more than five other countries, right now the MS-13 family is the biggest of gang operations. Law enforcement is reigning in on their operations, but as soon as MS is weakened, there will be others anxious to fill the void.