Pubdate: Sun, 07 Aug 2005
Source: Plain Dealer, The (OH)

Copyright: 2005 The Plain Dealer
Contact:  http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: priority given to local letter writers
Author: Mark Gillispie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

EFFECT ON FAMILIES COSTING TAXPAYERS IN ONE OHIO COUNTY

Methamphetamine has proven expensive in Clermont County.

A drug task force in the southwest Ohio county has spent hundreds of 
thousands of dollars searching for and destroying meth labs. More than 100 
have been found since 2000 -- the second-highest total in the state, behind 
Summit County.

And now officials want to raise taxes to help pay for methamphetamine's 
most tragic consequence -- the neglect and abuse of children whose parents 
make and use the highly addictive drug.

Voters will be asked to increase a children's services levy in November to 
raise an additional $1.5 million a year.

The number of children in the foster care system in Clermont County has 
jumped from 161 to 315 in the last four years. Anne Arbaugh, deputy 
director for Clermont County Children's Protective Services, said drugs are 
largely responsible for the increase, and meth is the biggest culprit.

The county is responsible for the care of 44 children removed from homes 
where parents made meth. At least 10 more have been taken from parents 
largely because of meth abuse.

"When you're up for days at a time, that means you're going to be sleeping 
for a couple days and obviously you can't care for kids in those 
circumstances," Arbaugh said.

While Clermont County -- largely a collection of rural communities and 
Cincinnati suburbs -- has been aggressive combating meth, some areas of 
rural southern Ohio have found only a few, if any, labs.

Scott Duff, supervisor of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and 
Identification's meth lab task force, says the region is "eaten up" with labs.

"These are very rural communities," Duff said. "Law enforcement resources 
are so stretched that they're barely able to answer their calls on a daily 
basis."

Rural areas across the country have been especially vulnerable to meth's 
allure.

The ability to make a drug can be empowering to people with limited 
education and prospects. But there appear to be deeper, sociological 
reasons why methamphetamine use has skyrocketed in rural communities.

"Part of the beauty of small-town America is the beauty of what they call 
simple pleasures," said Dr. Alex Stalcup, a drug treatment specialist in 
San Francisco. "Methamphetamine is 100-500 times more pleasurable than what 
you get from those things."

Methamphetamine loves places like Felicity, a village in southern Clermont 
County. Surrounded by tobacco fields and trailer parks and awash in poverty 
and unemployment, Felicity has been hit hard by meth problems.

Mary Murphy wishes county narcotics detectives and local police would do 
more to rid Felicity of meth. While one lab has been dismantled in her 
small apartment complex, she suspects that several more are operating.

"This meth is getting a hold of a lot of communities," Murphy said. "It's 
getting a hold of Felicity because there's no law enforcement. The rats are 
running here because they know they can get away with it."

Felicity Police Chief Ray Hesler says there's not much he can do.

"It comes into the village, and we do the best we can with what we got," 
Hesler said. "But our budget is just like every other place -- it's next to 
nothing."
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MAP posted-by: Beth