US DRUG CRISIS: IN FRESNO'S METH HELL, THERE'S NO ANTIDOTE

A deputy searches a car in Fresno. Getting pricked by a drug needle is a common hazard.© Anna-Maja Rappard/CNN A deputy searches a car in Fresno. Getting pricked by a drug needle is a common hazard.

So there he is, sitting on the cold curb at night, cuffed by the Fresno County sheriff's deputies.

Yes, the man tells CNN, he'd avoided getting a new registration, not wanting to spend the money. So now the 28-year-old is looking at a ticket on top of the registration and a late fee.

Nothing comes cheap and easy for him -- except for methamphetamine.

That's the lesson he says he got at the age of 13, when his older brother, the person he looked up to the most in the world, told him to try the drug.

"And from then on, it just took control," he says.

Meth has also taken control of a large swath of Fresno, California. Evolving production and distribution