Pubdate: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 Source: Columbian, The (WA) Copyright: 2005 The Columbian Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.columbian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/92 Author: Rosie Brensek Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) CLINIC IS PREVENTION I have an ideal location for the methadone clinic proposed for the Salmon Creek area. Why not put it in that run-down trailer park on Highway 99? Seriously, though, it's time we admitted that Clark County has a much more dangerous problem than ex-heroin addicts who are trying to sober up. It's called methamphetamine. I'm a public health nurse who lives in the Salmon Creek area, and I wonder if the worried neighbors who object to the clinic ever bothered to visit some of the neighborhoods between Highway 99 and Interstate 5? I can think of one particular street in the area that's been referred to as "Meth Alley." The ex-heroin addicts I've met are only harmful to themselves, but the methamphetamine addicts are paranoid and dangerous to everyone. I suspect that there are children currently attending Sarah J. Anderson, Sacajawea and Salmon Creek elementary schools who cope with a parent's methamphetamine addiction problems on a daily basis. Let ex-heroin addicts get their methadone in a safe place. Concentrate our energies and outrage on the methamphetamine scourge instead. It's everywhere in Clark County, folks. Rosie Brinsek Vancouver - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom