Pubdate: Fri, 10 Feb 2006
Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2006 San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Contact: http://www.sgvtribune.com/writealetter
Website: http://www.sgvtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3725
Authors: Richard Rawson and Jackie Speier
Note: Dr. Richard Rawson is the associate director of the UCLA 
Integrated Substance Abuse Program in the School of Medicine. Sen. 
Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, is the chairperson of the 
California Senate Select Committee on Methamphetamine Abuse.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

WE ARE BEING BATTERED BY A BLIZZARD OF METH

IT wasn't an anti-drug Red Ribbon Week speaker who recently 
enlightened a classroom of Temecula kindergartners about California's 
pervasive methamphetamine problem.

It was their teacher. She was arrested on suspicion of being under 
the influence of meth in the classroom. So much for the ABCs and 
hooked on phonics. This was a lesson on average Californians getting 
hooked on meth.

California is ground zero for the national meth epidemic. Estimates 
from California's Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs suggest 
more than one half million Californians have recently used meth and 
many of them have crossed the invisible line into meth addiction. 
It's a first. Publicly funded drug treatment centers are now seeing 
more meth addicts than alcoholics. Of the 100,000 Californians in 
drug treatment programs on any given day, one-third of them are 
dependent on meth, according to the DPA.

The meth problem snaked its way into California through the backdoors 
of rural communities where it originally was being cooked and 
manufactured. It stayed under the radar for many years as it spread 
throughout the state. Now it's everywhere.

 From the farmlands to deep suburbia to the inner city, the public 
health of the Golden State has been dramatically battered by a 
blizzard of meth. At no time in California's history has one drug 
done so much damage to so many people.

While it is obvious that people drawn into the trap of addiction have 
their lives terribly degraded by meth, many others also suffer 
serious damage from this plague. An especially cruel aspect of the 
meth problem is the damage it is doing to the women and children in California.

Women are particularly drawn to meth because they believe it will 
boost their energy, help them lose weight and cope with the demands 
of family and work. In some cases it's been called "mother's little 
helper." But it becomes "the disaster drug" when mom loses her 
health, the kids to foster care, her job and the house.

Current research is showing that when pregnant women use meth it can 
cause damage to the developing fetus. If kids are present in the 
house or lab where meth is being manufactured, a high percentage of 
children will test positive for the drug by inhaling the vapor of the 
cooking drug and by accidentally absorbing the drug through skin 
contact. While these direct effects of the drug on children are 
damaging, the psychological damage done to kids raised in the 
chaotic, neglectful and often violent lives of addict/parents is 
equally if not more harmful.

No one wants to see kids taken from their parents, but when parents 
are actively using meth, they are unable to provide their children 
with safe or competent care. As a result, children raised by meth 
producers and addicts are often taken from their parents and put into 
an already overloaded foster care system.

There is hope. There is clear research evidence that meth users 
respond positively to treatment. Treatment works. Over the past five 
years, more than 100,000 Californians addicted to meth have received 
treatment via Proposition 36. Without question, this voter initiative 
has saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Research conducted in California demonstrates that treatment 
delivered within a drug court works particularly well. Drug courts 
give meth addicts a better chance at rehabilitation, help keep 
families together and save the state millions of dollars in jail 
expenses. Drug court judges and treatment programs create extremely 
effective teams successfully keeping recovering users in treatment 
for 12 to 18 months. It's necessary time for successful meth recovery.

Treatment assistance for Californians addicted to meth is part of a 
solution, but we shouldn't sit by and treat the casualties. A 
vigorous and effective public information campaign about the health 
risks of using meth is critical. Accurate knowledge about the 
devastating impact of meth on the body and brain can prevent new 
users and the damage from meth can be prevented.

According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, roughly two-thirds 
of the meth used in the United States comes from the larger labs, 
increasingly in Mexico and controlled by Mexican crime organizations. 
We need to ask for cooperation from the Mexican government and 
toughen laws against smuggling meth over the border.

The meth epidemic in California has taken more than 20 years to build 
to its current level. It is not going to go away anytime soon. It is 
not a flash in the pan.

Although the White House has ignored the meth problem for far too 
long, it has come out much stronger recently calling meth "the most 
significant drug threat to California."

It's time to wake up.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake