Meth Causes Madness At California Newspapers PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #188 Tuesday October 10, 2000 Even as media coverage of the war on drugs becomes more balanced, some newspapers continue to cover drug issues the old-fashioned way: with scare stories and the optimistic notion that the drug war will work if we just put some more money into it. A mammoth 16-page report about methamphetamine appeared in the Fresno Bee and other Bee papers this week that attempted to reinforce all the old stereotypes about drugs and drug policy, as the editorial below illustrates (if you have a lot of time on your hands and you want to hear more details, the articles from the report have been archived at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1511/a03.htm). Please write a letter to the newspapers to let them know that as long as they remain committed to drug prohibition, they are only helping to increase the problems associated with illegal drugs. WRITE A LETTER TODAY It's not what others do it's what YOU do PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, Phone, fax etc.) Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter list () if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our impact and effectiveness. CONTACT INFO: Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Contact: Source: Modesto Bee Contact: Source: Sacramento Bee Contact: ARTICLE US CA: A Madness Called Meth, Editorial URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1509/a02.html Newshawk: Jo-D and Tom-E Pubdate: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Fresno Bee Contact: Feedback: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html Note: This series also ran in the Modesto Bee () and the Sacramento Bee ( ), A Special Report by the McClatchy Company's California Newspapers with a special website: http://www.methvalley.com/ MAP's index is at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1500/a04.html A Madness Called Meth: Editorial WE ARE LOSING THE DRUG WAR IN OUR OWN BACK YARD. Speed, crank, crystal, ice: Whatever its street name these days, methamphetamine represents a threat -- not only to the people who use it, but to their children, their neighbors, the environment and the wider community. Unlike previous drug scourges, the meth epidemic is uniquely American in origin. Alarmingly, as a team of Bee reporters from Modesto, Fresno and Sacramento document in today's special 18-page section, "A Madness Called Meth," California's great Central Valley is meth's principal breeding ground and the place where the bulk of its victims live. Overdosed meth addicts crowd Valley hospitals. From Redding to Bakersfield, their abused and neglected children swell the rolls of foster care. With increasing and deadly frequency, the makeshift labs where they cook their drugs erupt into flames, spewing toxic chemicals and leaving poisonous residues that threaten groundwater and force costly cleanups. The number of drug labs discovered in California has soared, from 559 in 1995 to more than 2,000 last year. Police -- local, state and federal -- have spent countless hours and millions of dollars chasing meth traffickers. They close a lab only to find that three others pop up to take its place. They cut off the supply of one ingredient chemical and the meth merchants find a substitute. Penalties are stiff, but when the choice is between $6.40 an hour picking fruit or a dead-end job in the city, and thousands of dollars a day cooking meth, an endless supply of people will take the risk. What is meth's lure? The drug floods the brain with dopamine, a natural chemical that stimulates pleasure. Soon the body craves more and more. Over time, meth addicts can't live without it. The craving is so powerful that if they can't buy from suppliers, meth addicts will make their own brews, using recipes available over the Internet or in book shops, with ingredients that can be purchased in bulk from drugstores. The side effects of chronic use include itchy scalps and skin, scabs from all the scratching and teeth that fall out. The drug triggers sleeplessness, agitation and violence. Researchers say the damage to the brain may be irreversible. Because meth has not generated the kind of gang warfare and shootouts that have attended other drug epidemics in the country -- cocaine, for example -- Congress has failed to recognize or address the magnitude of meth's growing threat. Compared with federal drug-fighting funds approved for other states and regions, Bee reporters found that Central California's meth-fighting efforts have been shortchanged. While San Diego gets $10 million from the federal government to combat drug trafficking, Milwaukee $4.5 million and Lake County, Indiana, $3 million, the nine Valley counties that stretch from Sacramento to Kern receive just $1.5 million from the federal government, the smallest drug-fighting budget for any region in the country. That has to change. Money is needed in large amounts for education, enforcement, treatment and environmental cleanup. Unfortunately, politicians, at both the state and federal level, have failed to grasp the scope of the problem. Gov. Gray Davis inexcusably vetoed a bill that would have created meth site cleanup standards. He called the $3 million price tag too expensive, a shocking indication of how steep the learning curve is, even for our own governor. Where are our champions in Washington, the Valley's representatives in Congress -- Gary Condit, George Radanovich, Calvin Dooley and William Thomas? Where are our senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer? What can we expect from our state legislators, Jim Costa, Chuck Poochigian, Dick Monteith, George House, Mike Briggs, Sarah Reyes, Dean Florez and Roy Ashburn? Predictably and understandably, local and state governments' limited answer to the meth threat has been to attack the supply side. It's a response weighted toward cops and prosecutors, leaving little for education, treatment and cleanup. One recent evening in Kern County, 29 officers, county sheriffs' deputies, city police, and state and federal narcotics officers gathered to bust one meth dealer, a man who'd been under surveillance for months. Bee reporters totaled up the law enforcement cost for putting just six members of a big Fresno-based meth ring in prison: $2.1 million. An adequate police response to attack the supply side of the meth threat is essential. But it's also true that the money will be largely wasted if government doesn't act simultaneously to reduce demand. Resources to attack the demand side -- money for treatment and education -- are almost nonexistent. In Butte County north of Sacramento, meth addicts desperate for treatment are instructed to call a number every Monday between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Mostly they are told to call back later. Beyond more treatment, there is an urgent need for education about the special dangers of this awful drug. Anyone tempted to try meth should see the before-and-after pictures of Jackie Hughes, the former Sears model reduced after years of meth abuse to a toothless crone with bald patches on her head and scabs on her face. They ought to hear the story of Douglas Haaland Jr., the father who, agitated after coming down from an eight-day meth binge, beat his 4-year-old son to death and will spend the rest of his life in prison. They should see Amber Walker, the 3-month-old who died of starvation, wide-eyed in her crib in a squalid Bakersfield motel, leaving behind a meth-addicted mother who rarely touched her. "The Madness of Meth" is both a warning and a plea. To the public, it's a warning about the dangers this drug poses: Don't try it. To policy-makers, it's a plea -- and a demand. We need more help to stop the traffickers, to clean up the toxic mess they leave behind. And we urgently need resources to treat the addicts more effectively and to educate the vulnerable. Without serious investments in all those areas, the chase will never end. Meth will win and we will lose. SAMPLE LETTER To the editor: I spent a significant portion of my day wading through the thousands of words in your report "A Madness Called Meth." While there were some moving human portraits, and the depth of the problem was clearly illustrated, I must say all the effort was for naught, as editors lacked the guts to clearly address the root of the situation: drug prohibition itself. Users of legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol don't have an incentive to subsidize their own habits by encouraging friends and acquaintances to pick up the same habits. But, methamphetamine users quickly learn that they can get high for free and actually make some good money on the side by selling part of their stash. More enterprising users realize they can produce the drug with little time or investment to make truly impressive profits. Those manufacturers have no incentive to deal with the byproducts of the process in a responsible way. They dispose of hazardous waste clandestinely, leaving the mess for someone else. When you are all done patting yourselves on the back for allegedly exposing a great menace, I suggest everyone who contributed to the report, especially those who conceived and shaped it, read journalist Dan Gardner's series "Losing the war on drugs" published in the Ottawa Citizen last month (it's still online at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/drugs/). See how compelling and enlightening honest reporting can be when it's not encumbered by the requirements of ideology. Stephen Young IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work. ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts 3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm Prepared by Stephen Young - http://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus Alert Specialist

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