Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jul 2005
Source: Peoria Journal Star (IL)
Copyright: 2005sPeoria Journal Star
Contact:  http://pjstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
Author: Mike Lawrence
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Note: Mike Lawrence heads the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois 
University

PREVENTION KEY TO WINNING METH WAR

Tom McNamara has been a soldier in the war on drugs for decades, including 
duty as an undercover cop infiltrating outlaw motorcycle gangs. He's no 
softy. So his take on battling Illinois' methamphetamine scourge may 
surprise some folks.

"We're not going to arrest our way out of this problem," McNamara asserts 
with a terseness that belies far-reaching implications our political 
leaders must grasp to deal intelligently with this highly addictive, too 
readily attainable poison that batters the brain, poses unique threats to 
public safety and turns parents into demons that actualize a child's 
nightmares.

For several years, most state leaders and lawmakers underestimated the 
danger, dismissing it as a phenomenon among modern-day hillbillies 
emulating old moonshiners in the backwoods of southern Illinois. They know 
better now. Meth is being manufactured, snorted and mainlined in Chicago 
apartments and in affluent suburbs; it defies socio-economic as well as 
geographic boundaries.

As comprehension of the drug's reach and devastation has increased, 
Attorney General Lisa Madigan and rural lawmakers have found it easier to 
rally support for legislation to restrict access to the cold-medicine 
ingredients that make it incredibly simple to cook up a batch. Under 
Madigan's leadership, the state has toughened penalties for users and 
makers and fashioned measures to facilitate prosecution. Law enforcement, 
especially where manufacturing and use have become rife, has mobilized.

But what citizens and political leaders must come to realize is that 
attacking the supply side is woefully inadequate. As long as demand 
persists, meth manufacturers, distributors and users will seek and find 
ways to meet it - and our cops, courts, prisons and child welfare agencies 
will continue to be overwhelmed.

Some in key roles, including Madigan, comprehend this. They understand the 
urgency of exponentially bolstering prevention and treatment initiatives.

They recognize the need for unprecedented cooperation among people and 
organizations that often have scrapped while scraping for their share of 
tax dollars. McNamara, who spearheaded narcotics enforcement efforts in 
southern Illinois for years and now focuses on problems unique to meth, 
points to the mix of participants at a recent conference. Joining cops, 
prosecutors and judges among the more than 500 attendees were social 
workers, treatment specialists, health care providers, educators and 
recovering addicts.

"Partnerships are absolutely essential," McNamara says.

However, it will take uniquely strong cohesion and conviction among the 
conferees and their counterparts to persuade the governor and legislators 
to substantially invest in prevention and treatment given the state's 
fiscal stress and pressures for spending in other priority areas. Those on 
the front lines must enlighten our top state officials and their 
constituents about the perniciousness of the addiction and, just as 
importantly, about the potential for taming it.

Because of dramatic changes in brain chemistry, the recovery period for 
meth addicts is unusually lengthy. Intense craving can be triggered by 
anything from a scene in a movie to a time of the day or week once devoted 
to partying. But pilot programs employing creative avoidance strategies, 
dealing with underlying mental health problems and emphasizing exercise 
have proven successful.

Those programs are costly. Yet, they take far less of a toll in both 
financial and human terms than arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating 
addicts; cleaning up meth labs; gingerly removing debris that can explode 
upon contact, and caring for the abused and neglected children of users.

That message must be driven home in the State House. If it takes hold, it 
will mean a more effective war on meth and, incidentally, on other 
devastating drugs.

Mike Lawrence heads the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois 
University. His e-mail address is  ---
MAP posted-by: Beth