Former cop turned felon from meth, advocates awareness
The Idaho Meth Project held their sixth annual “Give Meth The Boot” event at Snake River Landing in Idaho Falls.
Gov. Butch Otter is at the event to help raise money for meth awareness in Idaho.
“We were the average Idaho family,” said Cyn Renau, a former police officer and recovering meth addict.
“She had worked in law enforcement. my dad was the chief investigator at the attorney general’s office, he was one of the top cops in the states,” said daughter Whitney Renau.
Seven and a half years ago, Cyn Renau was moving up in her career, but her life was about to take a dramatic turn.
“I worked my way up to a six-figure income. When I got a divorce in 2005, the very first guy I dated after my divorce introduced me to meth. It was peer pressure, plain and simple. I was addicted immediately. I had gone from being a good mom to blowing off their basketball game because I hadn’t scored my drugs yet.” said Renau.
Renau’s addiction lasted 100 days. “In that 100 days I went $52,000 dollars in debt,” said Renau.
She was spending $1,000 a day to sustain her addiction, until a raid ended her downward spiral.
“Glass breaking, doors breaking and 31 male voices yelling, ‘police, on the floor, on the floor,'” said Renau.
Her two daughters arrived home and saw it unfold. Renau’s oldest daughter Whitney was 14 at the time. She remembers the day vividly.
“We pulled up just in time to see the cops breaking down the door and yelling we have a warrant, and my sister crying. And we got to see her taken away in handcuffs,” said Whitney Renau.
“They got to see me go off in the back seat of a patrol car instead of the front seat,” said Renau.
Whitney took on the parental role as her mom got clean in jail, then spent six months on house arrest as a convicted felon. In May 2012 she was cleared of all supervision.
It took a lot of work to mend their relationship, but today, “It’s solid, we are best friends, said Whitney Renau.
Whitney and her mom now work together for the Idaho Meth Project.
They go to schools sharing their story and hoping to impact teens across our state.
The Idaho Meth Project coordinator says the non-profit has helped cut meth use in teens by 50-percent over the past six years.
