There is a methamphetamine crisis happening in Los Angeles County as the price of getting high hits rock bottom. Local officials estimate it now costs just $4 a day to maintain a meth addiction, as cheap crystal meth floods local communities.

“We have a meth epidemic in Southern California,” said Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole, at a recent meeting when numerous residents complained they no longer feel safe going to public parks. The epidemic has hit Santa Monica’s Chess Park particularly hard, according to photographs provided to Spectrum News 1 by a resident.

The pictures show several men clutching small bags of white powder, smoking out of bongs, and exchanging money at picnic tables meant for chess players. While the Santa Monica Police Department has hired more police officers and increased patrols, Cole said there are still not enough officers to station one in the park every day.

“We see these concerns. We take them seriously,” Cole said, adding that police officers have been injured in scuffles with people hyped up on methamphetamine.

In 2016, 284 people died from meth poisoning in Los Angeles County, according to data from the Department of Public Health. Hospital trips for related injuries more than tripled from 7,000 in 2010 to 25,000 in 2016.

“This is probably the last drug before death. A lot of homeless people will use it, people who are always in the shadows,” said Tal Stunitski, a rehab counselor at the Chabad Treatment Center on West Olympic. Stunitski said the center helps patients hooked on cheap methamphetamine from all over the country.

One of those patients, Paul Sham, said his addiction quickly spiraled out of control.

“About day three, you’re awake and start seeing things and going crazy and you think smoking more is going to make it better but it doesn’t,” Sham said.

During a recent trip to Santa Monica, Sham revealed he had been sober for just five days. Sham said he came here for rehab and a change of environment, but had noticed several people who appeared to be high on methamphetamine at the beach. Nearby, a man was banging his head on the lifeguard headquarters.

The lifeguards offered help but the man refused and eventually walked away. Law enforcement officials said there is little they can do to curtail the problem. Proposition 47, which was passed by voters in 2014, made drug possession a misdemeanor crime. Dealers caught with methamphetamine are usually cited and then released.