Pubdate: Sun, 03 Dec 2006
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2006 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Alberto R. Gonzales
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Methamphetamine+Awareness+Day

SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT THE DANGERS OF METH

It has become a familiar scene on the evening news across the country:
Neighbors watch in stunned silence as police raid the house next door
and the nice couple who for the most part kept to themselves are
hauled away for running a methamphetamine lab in their basement.

Compared to marijuana, heroin or cocaine, methamphetamine, or meth as
it is commonly known, is relatively new in the headlines. But this
drug has had a tremendous and terrible impact in a short time. Once
thought to be a problem affecting primarily America's rural
communities, no community, no matter how large or how small, is safe
from the allure and the destruction caused by methamphetamine.

Users are drawn in by the drug's promise of euphoria. Its quick, feel-
good results make it appealing to a teenager who may be feeling blue
or to an exhausted stay-at-home mom.

Our nation has seen the allure of a high with other drugs. But even
more sinister in some ways than cocaine or heroine, continued
methamphetamine use can interfere with the brain's ability to
experience pleasure normally.

Can you imagine not being able to feel joy or pleasure from the things
that make you happiest today? Imagine that you have unknowingly
sacrificed your ability to feel such a basic human emotion for the
false, short-term promise of feeling happy, high or euphoric.

Users quickly learn that methamphetamine is far from glamorous. Their
teeth rot, they can't sleep, they become emaciated from lack of
appetite, and their thinning flesh becomes scarred by deep, self-
inflicted scratches as they seek to scratch imaginary bugs out from
under the surface of their skin.

But they are addicted, and they usually cannot stop without
help.

Why Care About the Addicts?

You may ask, at this point, why care about the drug addicts? They are
their own victims - no one forced them to use an illegal drug, right?
They deserve to suffer.

But while some consider drug abuse to be a victimless crime, meth does
not just affect the user. It affects the children, it affects the
community, and in a very real and lasting way it affects the
environment.

The collateral damage of this drug is nothing short of horrifying.
Babies have been burned to death when meth-cooking parents
accidentally set fire to the lab in their home. Children have been
exposed to hazardous chemicals and severely neglected by their
meth-abusing parents.

Meth labs have caused environmental damage. The chemicals used in
making the drug include lye, red phosphorus and hydriodic acid, and
each pound of finished methamphetamine creates up to six pounds of
hazardous waste. These toxins are often dumped onto the ground or into
the water systems near the lab - making meth your problem.

Last March, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the
Combat Methamphetamine Act, which provided additional tools for
targeting meth traffickers. This law provides a national standard for
the retail sale of products containing the ingredients needed to make
meth, like pseudoephedrine, and makes other important contributions to
the war against drugs.

The most prominent change you may have seen is your local retailer
moving some cold medicines behind the counter. It seems like a small
step, but thanks to this and other initiatives - particularly at the
state level - tremendous progress has been made in preventing the
production of meth in small labs.

Halting the Manufacture

The focus is turning to halting the manufacture and smuggling of meth
from superlabs controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organizations
operating in the United States and Mexico and to reducing demand in
this country. I've made clear to U.S. attorneys throughout America
that meth continues to be a high priority.

But the fight against methamphetamine cannot be won with prosecutions
alone. Education is needed about the dangers of the meth, so that
potential users never start. And meth abusers must know that help is
available to them, so they can get clean.

Thursday was National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. The Justice
Department is working with partners at the federal, state and local
level, in government and in the private and nonprofit sectors, to
increase understanding of this problem.

Meth poses a tremendous challenge for law enforcement and all of
society. It is a shared responsibility to work together in this fight
to ensure a safe, successful and drug-free future. Progress toward
that goal will be something very worthy of giving thanks for this
holiday season.

[sidebars]

MAYOR'S SUMMIT

Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup will host a summit on meth abuse Tuesday, Dec.
19, from 10 a.m. to noon at Pima Community College's Downtown campus.
To RSVP, call 791-4499, Ext. 1132.

WATCH 'METH 101'

The U.S. Department of Justice believes that education efforts reduce
methamphetamine demand: The more people know about meth, the less
likely they are to use it. The department has a model methamphetamine
education presentation, "Meth 101," that is available at
www.usdoj.gov/methawareness
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake