Pubdate: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 Source: Daily Sentinel (TX) Copyright: 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.dailysentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3023 Author: Kyle Peveto CONFERENCE TAKES HARD LOOK AT LOCAL DRUGS When baby Harold Harris' body was found in November 2005, Melanie Richmond blamed drugs for the tragedy. A month after Nacogdoches County deputies found Harold decmoposing in the woods near his mother's rent house, Richmond had formed a local coalition -- Healing Helpers -- to avoid similar tragedies. Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (ENLARGE) Linda Silvas of Sequim, Wash., second from left, leads a group in drum playing during her performance at the Healing Helpers Coalition conference in SFA's University Center Ballroom on Wednesday. Silva is a member of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. Participants are, from left, Sharon Walker, Tammy Ellis and Charles Flanery. "I'm not a Ph.D, but I'm a local mother," she said. "And the death of Harold Harris -- after losing him, I knew we needed to do more in our area, more to help those at risk." Children who grow up in drug-infested homes sustain physical and mental abuse and often become addicted before birth, she said, and her main goal is to help those kids. To help further the work of the Healing Helpers Coalition, Richmond and others planned a three-day conference to bring together "the Ph.Ds and the mothers" to assess methamphetamine and other drug use in East Texas. Beginning with a Louisiana doctor who is searching for new ways to treat addicts, the conference started Wednesday night at SFA's Student Center. The doctor, Nicholas Goeders, is a professor and head of the department of pharmacology, toxicology and neuroscience at Louisiana State University Shreveport. Methamphetamine clinics are notoriously bad at reforming addicts, Goeders said. Users complete the 28-day programs, and 97 percent relapse, he said. "Most of the treatments that don't work mimic the effects of drugs," said Goeders, a mustachioed, academic-looking professor who wore a dark suit for his presentation. "The person is still addicted to the drug (but has stopped using it during treatment)." Goeders has begun designing a new treatment program that uses pre-existing medications in tandem to block the triggers that cause addicts to want drugs -- the point where addiction begins. Driving by a house where a recovering addict formerly bought meth can trigger a relapse, he said, and Goeders' proposed treatment would block that trigger in the addict's brain. "Addiction is so complex," he said, pondering the reasons that drew him to study drug addiction. "How does it make people give up everything they have? ... What makes it so strong that they would risk stroke or death or prison to use drugs?" Tom Owens, a vocational nurse for almost 30 years, began planning the conference a year ago. Scrambling before the speakers began Wednesday afternoon, he wore a black cowboy hat and a black T-shirt that read Don't Meth With Texas, mimicking the design of the anti-littering campaign. Working with addicts and those hurt by addicts, he said he knows too much about what's happening to families and children. "There have been too many children in Nacogdoches County and Angelina County who end up dead," he said in a gravelly voice. "This situation is just absolutely appalling." - ------ The Healing Helpers Coalition's conference at SFA continues today. Visit the second floor of the student center for a full schedule of events. Various speakers will present messages across campus. Steven Steiner, who debates against the legalization of illegal drugs, will speak at 2 p.m. today. Wednesday night, Steiner appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight, a CNN news program. He says that a few millionaires with a "secular progressive agenda" are funding the fight to legalize drugs such as marijuana across the country. "They're spending millions of dollars a year -- $15 to $20 million -- which is far more than I have," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman