Thatcher High School senior Mary Mendez saved money earned from her job as a hostess for Bricks restaurant and donated $500 to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program May 18.

Mendez said she was motivated to help the DARE program because she was helped by it after being exposed to drug abuse by a family member at an early age.

"The DARE program helped me realize that wasn't right," she said. "I have a younger brother and a younger sister, and I just wanted the DARE program to be around for all the kids."

[continues 283 words]

War On Drugs

PRESCOTT VALLEY - Declaring a war on methamphetamine and other drugs, Mayor Harvey Skoog on Tuesday discussed the formation of a two-person narcotics enforcement team in the Prescott Valley Police Department.

"Our goal is to get drug dealers out of town," Skoog said during a 20-minute press conference. He noted Prescott Valley police made 711 narcotics arrests in 2006.

However, Skoog downplayed a proposal that he listed in a memo dated May 21: The creation of a tent city to house people convicted of drug and alcohol offenses.

[continues 331 words]

TUCSON, Ariz. -- In a year of ongoing drought, grass has been greener in Arizona -- for law enforcement agencies.

They're having a bountiful year harvesting marijuana loads from smugglers.

According to a program that coordinates drug control efforts, there has been a 25 percent jump in the number of reported pot seizures in the state from Oct. 1 through April 30 over the same period a year earlier.

In fact, pot seizures are up across the Southwest so far this fiscal year, except in New Mexico. Seizures in West and South Texas have shot up by 54 percent and have increased 14 percent in California.

[continues 93 words]

BULLHEAD CITY - Meth 101 informational meetings for parents staged this spring at Bullhead City elementary and junior high schools drew a mixed response, according to Assistant Bullhead City Police Chief Brian Williamson.

At Friday's Bullhead City Police Department Drug Forum Education Committee meeting, Williamson said the Meth 101 meetings attracted anywhere from three to twenty people.

Committee co-chairman Larry Tunforss said he wanted to ask those not attending the Meth 101 meetings, "What are you doing that's more important?"

[continues 258 words]

In an era of unmanned drones, night-vision goggles and wireless sensors, Sloan Satepauhoodle scours the desert along the Mexican border for drug smugglers in the old ways.

She is a tracker, a former Secret Service agent and customs inspector in Washington who traded in her desk and computer to work "intel" in the desert, employing sign-cutting -- or tracking -- skills once used by her Kiowa ancestors to hunt animals.

Satepauhoodle (pronounced SAY-paw-who-dle) roams this vast Indian reservation in a four-wheel-drive pickup, armed with an M-4 rifle and a .40-calibre semi-automatic pistol. Her job: to look for the tiniest sign that a smuggler has been around and then go after him.

[continues 941 words]

'It Is Our Responsibility To Fix It. Let's Get It Done'

Napolitano Calls For New Emphasis In Fight Vs. Meth

Gov. Janet Napolitano is calling for a crackdown on the cross-border methamphetamine traffic and an expansion of addiction treatment to combat the illegal drug's growing threat to public health and safety.

"We run the risk of losing entire generations of Arizonans to meth if we don't have this as a No. 1 public priority," Napolitano said. "This is our No. 1 drug problem. It is a public health problem. It is a crime problem. It is a public safety problem. It is our problem, and if it's our problem, then it is our responsibility to fix it. Let's get it done."

[continues 612 words]

Addiction to methamphetamine is tough to kick. But contrary to a major meth myth, recovery is possible.

So we're heartened by the emphasis on treatment outlined in the new report by Gov. Janet Napolitano's Arizona Methamphetamine Task Force.

Effective, long-term treatment tailored to meth users must be available in Arizona communities, on Indian reservations and particularly in our prisons.

Without a taste of recovery, crimes by convicted addicts most assuredly will recur.

In addition, treatment should be coupled with attention to any mental-health problems.

[continues 147 words]

Every task force report ever written calls for a bunch of facilitating, implementing and coordinating, and the governor's task force report on methamphetamine does not disappoint.

But amid the recommendations for more prevention, treatment, investigation and coordination (yawn), a major omission looms.

A most creative approach to prosecuting meth miscreants was hatched by the Pima County Attorney's Office.

But while Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall headed the governor's task force on meth, that panel's report fails to note the innovation.

[continues 198 words]

Gov. Janet Napolitano's Methamphetamine Task Force on Monday unveiled 10 priority recommendations on how Arizona can fight meth use and related crimes.

The main priorities include:

- -- Expanding prevention programs for high-risk populations, schools, rural areas and tribal nations.

- -- Working with the Office of Homeland Security and tribal governments to prevent the trafficking of methamphetamine and chemicals used to make the drug.

- -- Expanding treatment for meth users, including treatment alternatives to prison.

"This is the first time in this state that there is a coordinated effort to address what is possibly the No. 1 drug problem in the state," said Barbara LaWall, Pima County attorney and task force chairwoman. "Now we're going to have to do mini-action-plans for each step."

[continues 261 words]

I have a common-sense and easy solution to prison and jail overcrowding: Reserve these cells for only those who intentionally harm others against their will.

Not gardeners. Not people who use, produce or sell to willing buyers "unapproved" products.

Re-legalize our now illegal drugs so they can be sold in legal, licensed and regulated business establishments. Will this solve our drug problems? No.

However, it will substantially reduce our crime rates and substantially increase public safety.

Kirk Muse

Mesa

[end]

Re: your Saturday editorial ("Worst drug yet merits 'not even once' edict"):

How should Tucson respond to illicit methamphetamine use? During the crack epidemic of the '80s, New York City chose zero tolerance, arresting and prosecuting as many offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack, and America's capital had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Yet crack use declined in both cities simultaneously.

The younger generation saw what crack was doing to their older brothers and sisters and decided crack was bad news. This is not to say nothing can be done about methamphetamine. Access to drug treatment is critical for today's meth users. Diverting resources away from prisons and into cost-effective treatment would save tax dollars and lives.

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.

[end]

A large drug seizure in Green Valley and the discovery of a body believed to be an illegal border crosser in Cochise County marked a busy early week for the Border Patrol.

On Tuesday, a ranch owner near Skeleton Ranch about 30 miles east of Douglas called authorities after a worker on the ranch discovered a man's body, said Gustavo Soto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The agency didn't know his name or age.

Through the end of March, the latest figures available, the agency has reported 49 border deaths in the Tucson Sector, down slightly from the 55 at the same time last year, figures show.

[continues 124 words]

An advertising blitz airing in Arizona since Wednesday is graphic enough to make you sick, but not nearly as sick as methamphetamines would make you.

Unlike most drugs, meth hooks its users hard with just one try.

Then the addicts evolve into crazy, ugly, violent criminals. Trendy, eh?

Also different from other street drugs, meth's hideous effects don't stop with the user.

The manufacturing of meth contaminates carpets, walls, ceilings, water supplies, even the land on which you're walking.

[continues 409 words]

The girl was going to try meth -- just once. Then steal -- just once. Then sleep with someone for the drug -- just once.

But it was the last scene of the advertisement, one of four television ads that will air across the state starting today, that really caught 14-year-old Kayla Newnam's attention. The girl's younger sister decided to try the drug, too.

"I'd never want my brother to end up like that. That would be horrible. And I'd never want to end up like that," Kayla said. "The scare tactic is working."

[continues 265 words]

10 Arizona Counties Banding Together To Combat Meth Use

A blond girl getting ready for a night out recoils in terror as she sees an image of herself as a bruised, bleeding addict huddled on the shower floor.

An agitated boy runs through a laundry facility, attacking people and demanding money, when he encounters his former self and screams, "This wasn't supposed to happen!"

These are just some of the graphic images that are part of an ad campaign hitting the airwaves, billboards and newspapers today to show the real-life horrors of methamphetamine use. advertisement

[continues 777 words]

Scottsdale middle school students will get a sneak peek at a statewide anti-methamphetamine campaign Tuesday designed to scare them straight.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Maricopa County Supervisors Chairman Don Stapley, R-District 2 of Mesa, Gilbert and Scottsdale, will be at Cocopah Middle School to unveil the Arizona Meth Project advertisements the day before the campaign's official launch on Wednesday. They'll also talk to about 30 students about the drug.

Arizona's campaign is patterned after the Montana Meth Project launched in September 2005. Arizona will use the same television ads aired in Montana, which feature dramatizations of meth's effects, said Linda Mushkatel, special projects manager for Maricopa County.

[continues 274 words]

I'm writing about "Big-House Budgets" (Currents, March 22).

I have a common-sense, inexpensive and easy solution to our prison-overcrowding situation: Reserve our prison space for those who intentionally harm others against their will. Not gardeners. Not people who use, produce or sell to willing buyers "unapproved" products.

What message would this send to our children? The same message we send to our children when we allow adults to purchase products like tobacco and alcohol.

A free country's government cannot protect its adult citizens from themselves. A free country's government has no right attempting to do so.

Kirk Muse

[end]

KINGMAN - The Mohave County supervisors heard Monday on the success of an anti-meth program aimed at middle school students in the county.

Brian Velarde, director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Colorado River, gave the board an update on MethSMART, an anti-meth program through the Boys and Girls Club that targets sixth-graders in Bullhead City, Fort Mojave, Mohave Valley, Kingman and Golden Valley schools.

So far, about 632 students have gone through, or are going through, the program, which focuses on the educating students on the dangers of meth.

[continues 351 words]

In its time, methamphetamine has gone by a number of names. Ice and glass because of its appearance. Speed because of the fast-paced, jittery high it brings. And now, strawberry, for its newest flavor.

Flavored meth, especially a variety known as "Strawberry Quick," has been popping up across the country, particularly in Western states.

Strawberry has been reported in California, Washington and Nevada, among other states, along with chocolate, cola and caramel flavors. Meth flavors haven't appeared in Arizona, but the conventional wisdom among law enforcement is that they will in time, and they are designed appeal to a broader, younger clientele.

[continues 292 words]

Re: the March 23 column "With U.S. focused on Iraq, drug war ebbs."

A cut in U.S. drug war funding for Latin America is not necessarily a bad thing. Destroy the Colombian coca crop and production will boom in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Destroy every last plant in South America and domestic methamphetamine production will increase to meet the demand for cocaine-like drugs.

The self-professed champions of the free market in Congress are seemingly incapable of applying basic economic principles to drug policy. Instead of waging a futile supply-side drug war abroad, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment here at home.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

[end]