Pubdate: Sun, 12 Nov 2006
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact:  http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: David Olson, The Press-Enterprise

FIGHTING BACK AGAINST METH

Palm Springs-Based Group Helping Spread Word In The Gay
Community

David Barrett knew how crystal meth destroys lives.

Meth had left the Palm Springs man jobless, homeless  and estranged
from his family. After he pulled his life  together, he became a
therapist and then head of a Los  Angeles anti-crystal-meth program.
He heard hundreds of  others tell him about the devastation it caused
in  their lives.

Yet when a friend placed a pipe with crystal meth in  front of Barrett
last year, he lit it without  hesitation. And his life started falling
apart again.

Barrett's relapse illustrates the power that the highly  addictive
drug has even over those who become crusaders  against it. After the
relapse -- his third over the  past 21 years -- Barrett, 46, quickly
realized that  crystal meth would kill him if he continued to use it.
He sought treatment at a Palm Springs recovery center  and now directs
the education program of the Palm  Springs Crystal Meth Task Force.

Barrett was one of more than 50 desert residents who  met a year ago
to form the task force after becoming  alarmed at how crystal meth was
ravaging the Coachella  Valley's gay community. Many users were
getting  infected with HIV. Barrett said he became HIV-positive  in
1985 from unprotected sex while high either on  crystal meth or
cocaine. Similar groups targeted at gay  meth users are in Los
Angeles, San Francisco and San  Diego.

Crystal meth is a form of methamphetamine that  resembles small chunks
of ice.

Since its formation, the task force has distributed  brochures warning
of the dangers of crystal meth and  listing places to turn for help,
inaugurated a 24-hour  hotline and trained local therapists, teachers
and  others on helping people with meth addiction. The group  has also
created two Web sites, one geared toward gay  and bisexual men and the
other directed at a general  audience.

The task force is raising money to put up billboards  and is planning
to send speakers into area schools,  said Robin Johnson, an addiction
specialist at Desert  AIDS Project, which helps fund the task force.
Johnson  herself lost her job, her partner and two jobs to meth  addiction.

Meth has shattered the lives of people throughout the  Inland area,
regardless of sexual orientation.

More than half of those seeking drug or alcohol  treatment in
Riverside and San Bernardino counties are  meth users, according to
health-department data.

The AIDS project is involved in crystal-meth education  largely
because of the links between meth and HIV,  Johnson said.

In 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are  available, 9.5
percent of gay meth users statewide  tested positive for HIV at
state-funded clinics,  compared with 3.9 percent of gay men overall,
according  to the state Department of Health Services.

Kevin Farrell, chief of education and prevention  services for the
state AIDS office, said the 2006  numbers are probably similar.

Barrett, who in addition to his volunteer work with the  task force is
interim director of education for the  AIDS project, said he regularly
meets gay men who have  avoided unsafe sex since the beginning of the
AIDS  epidemic and turn reckless once they start using meth.  Many are
older gay men who come to the desert to retire  and are offered meth
at a social gathering, he said.

"Someone who has protected themselves for 20-plus years  and always
used a condom is high on crystal and  suddenly makes a choice not to
use a condom," he said.

"Every week we have somebody who made that choice and  is now
infected."

Barrett sometimes mans booths that the task force sets  up at events
such as the recent Greater Palm Springs  Pride festival and at
VillageFest, the weekly street  fair in downtown Palm Springs.

Many people who stop by the booths are friends and  family members of
meth addicts who didn't know how to  help them, Barrett said.

"A lot of people haven't had anyone they could talk  to," he
said.

"They were going through it alone."

Barrett and other volunteers at the booths have also  helped people
find treatment for their addiction. Some  passersby pick up brochures
without saying a word.  Barrett said that doesn't discourage him.

"Even if somebody doesn't want to get clean and sober  today," he
said, "they'll know where to turn to in the  future." 
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