Pubdate: Mon, 09 Apr 2007
Source: Daily Astorian, The (OR)
Copyright: 2007 The Daily Astorian
Contact:  http://www.dailyastorian.info/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1629
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG TREATMENT BEGINS AT HOME

Despite Federal Cuts, Local Programs Such As Family Drug Court Flourish

ITEM: An Astoria High School senior tells her peers of her struggle 
since age 13 with methamphetamine: "It's available everywhere ... 
it's definitely in the schools."

ITEM: Seven suspected dealers are busted here, charged with 
possessing $44,000 in meth and cocaine. Authorities also seize 
$16,800 cash and 10 guns, including an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

ITEM: Drug deaths are on the rise in Oregon, with the state medical 
examiner reporting 212 fatalities in 2006 from heroin, cocaine, 
methamphetamine or a combination of drugs, an 8 percent increase from 
2005. Methamphetamine contributed to 89 deaths, three times more than 
in 1996. Heroin also took 89 lives in Oregon last year.

ITEM: The number of Daily Astorian stories and police-blotter items 
relating to meth has tripled in the past five years.

This isn't the over-hyped "reefer madness" from generations ago. Here 
in Clatsop County, real families are in the throes of destruction 
from meth, in addition to the old-fashioned plague of alcohol abuse.

Despite all of this, we're comparatively lucky compared to many rural 
counties in America. As a direct result of a Meth Summit meeting in 
Astoria in 2006, we have a Meth Summit Plan that at least provides a 
framework for fighting this scourge and rescuing those users who are 
willing to be helped.

One of the most promising initiatives here is the family drug court. 
As in other Oregon communities, many cries for help come from women 
anxious to overcome drug and alcohol problems so they can retrieve 
children from foster care. The drug court helps this happen.

It's also a notable positive development that the Clatsop County 
Community Corrections Department is spending $100,000 to increase the 
number of jail slots offering drug treatment.

But that's about as far as the good news stretches. On the bad-news 
side of the community ledger is the "overwhelming and serious" need 
for local detoxification services. Beyond this immediate gap, there 
are very few options for those who want to take the next step and 
seek in-patient residential treatment for indigent addicts. Unless 
they are lucky enough to have caring family with money or insurance, 
meth users have little access to the kind of care they need to break 
the addiction cycle.

The president's 2008 budget request of nearly $13 billion for drug 
control sounds lavish, but cuts $47 million from the Center for 
Substance Abuse Treatment and $37 million from the Center for 
Substance Abuse Prevention. The president wants to cut $246.5 million 
in state grants for Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Federal spending is, of course, no panacea. But treatment and 
prevention programs can't survive on the proceeds of bake sales. 
Vigorous law enforcement and prosecution of dealers is vital. But to 
salvage lives and make our communities safe, there must be an 
adequately funded partnership between police and social agencies. In 
Clatsop County, we have the desire, but the funds are skimpy.

Take time to let our elected leaders know that drug treatment 
programs benefit all of us, not just drug users.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman