Posted: 4/5/05
By MaryHelen Swanson
It makes you feel good.
It helps you lose weight, gives you physical energy for athletic activities, gives you enough zip to clean your house, tackle big tasks and keeps you going for days. It can kill, if not you, your children who play innocently around the house while you ëcookí the substance that is becoming one of the most dangerous drugs in history.
Itís called methamphetamine, ìmethî to the crowd, and itís got local officials on the run - but, they believe - in the right direction.
Last Tuesday night, another forum was held in Chisago County, this time in Rush City, to help people understand what the hoopla over meth is all about.
The people came, filling a large portion of the high school auditorium, and they sat in silence, intently taking in the words of the professionals on the panel before them.
While the words are chilling, the hope for the future is that things are going to change. But, as the presenters stressed last week, it is up to each of us to help make that difference.
They call it the walkaway drug
Special agent from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Paul Stevens said meth is the first drug in history that is so easily manufactured by individuals. And, he said, people like it, ìreally like it, a lot.î
Young people, Stevens went on, think they can get a handle on it. They call it the ìwalkawayî drug, he said, because people literally walk away from their lives when they start using it.
Stevens told the crowd that the first step in the right direction could happen this year, if Minnesota legislation is passed that places strict requirements on the purchase of pseudoephedrine (cold tablets) from area stores.
The law would make it difficult for young people to purchase the over-the-counter drugs needed for manufacturers (young people are often paid for this service in meth).
Under the law, individuals purchasing such cold remedies (Sudafed is a widely used product) would have to show an ID, a driver's licence proving they are over 18 and sign a log. Only two packages of the medication could be purchased in a week.
That should stop people from buying 100 boxes a week, Stevens said, and two boxes a week should take care of people who need it for allergies, sinus problems and drippy noses.
Even with legislation passed, Stevens went on, the problem is there are other drugs out there to use.
But the success stories of states which have passed such laws are many, Stevens noted. He expects that if passed in Minnesota, by next year there could be a 50 percent to 70 percent drop in meth labs. After passing such legislation in Oklahoma, Stevens said, the local labs dropped 80 percent.
Something has to be done, he went on, because there are only so many police and sheriff's officers out there to chase down the labs. He noted that the BCA is adding 10 more agents to work on meth.
In his 30 years of working in narcotics, Stevens said he has never seen anything like meth.
"It's the devil's blight," he said. It destroys everything. Because of meth manufacture, and the ease with which is can be done in the home, motel, even in a car, Stevens said there are some Minnesota communities that aren't safe to walk around at night.
It's mass homicide for those using the drug, he said. And it's costly in more than lives. In 2004, the state of Minnesota spent $176 million on it and that doesn't include associated medical bills.
And what price do you place on the lives of the children who die when a home explodes from a meth lab? But, we're on our way, he said, and a year from now he'd love to hear that hundreds of lives have been saved, families have been kept together and fewer businesses have collapsed.
Everybody's afraid of meth, he said, "I am too."
If we don't stop it, he said, it will change this town, the children - probably someone very close to you.
On a more positive note, Stevens said Chisago County citizens live in a good county because there are a lot of arrests for meth.
ìThe sheriff's doing his job,î he said.
It takes an active law enforcement to change things, to stop meth use. People will never stop on their own, he added.
When you hear that Chisago Countyís jail is full, that's a good thing in the war against meth.
Itís an epidemic
Sheriff Todd Rivard also spoke to the group. He said meth is an epidemic.
Today's meth, he also said, is very different from the "biker meth" of the mid-80s. He noted that 80 percent of meth comes from Mexico or California, only 20 percent is made here.
Rivard explained that Chisago deputies were trained in 1995, and meth arrived in 1997. He introduced Corporal Scott Berg.
Be aware of whatís going on around you
Corporal Scott Berg has been trained as a meth lab technician. He told the audience he saw his first meth lab in this county in 1998. It's a simple recipe and it's available on the internet, he said, and labs can be very portable.
The are very visible in the back of cars, he said.
Berg said every county has labs, Chisago is just proactive and the law enforcement agents dig them out well. He said meth problems affect a community by filling up the jails with inmates that have many more difficult problems, mental and physical.
In addition, there are many medical costs for inmates which become a burden on the taxpayers.
He figured close to 85 percent of people in jail are there because of some meth-related issue.
Berg explained that Chisago County is addressing the problem in a number of ways: having more deputies trained as lab techs, continuing to beef up education through forums such as was held last week, trying to get kids to see what they are doing to themselves, implementing two canine, drug-sniffing dog units, and instigating a tactical team. Berg said he has dealt with just over 120 meth labs in the last five years.
He talked about the ingredients needed to manufacture meth, noting that there are a lot of ways to get the end result. He urged people to be aware of people who are buying large quantities of items such as the cold remedies and to report it to the local law enforcement agency. Get the license plate of the vehicle they are driving, he said and call the sheriff.
Another problem that results from the manufacture of meth, Berg said, is that when people are done, they dispose of the remains often by tossing them out of the car into roadside ditches.
Groups cleaning ditches need to be careful and not touch anything that looks suspicious, such as discarded propane tanks, sludge-like substances that could resemble oatmeal, etc. Again, he said, if anything looks suspicious, call the authorities.
Berg said he wears protective clothing when handling a meth lab and has his own health checked often.
Child abuse and neglect increases in homes where meth is used or cooked
Carol Falkowski, director of research communications from Hazelden Foundation, herself having taken Sudafed on the day of the presentation for a cold, talked about the use of substances by young people.
Eight of 10 use alcohol, five of 10 use marijuana, about 5 percent use meth and 1 in 10 use anything else.
She agreed with Stevens that meth appeals to a large spectrum of people and that it does "deliver" to help people get more things done. Ten years ago, she noted, meth was only in the southwestern portion of the US, today it's widespread and there are three new groups using: adolescents, mothers and the gay community, particularly in urban areas.
Also, she pointed out, child abuse and neglect are increased and when meth is made in the home, and children have marked increase in health problems. People lose track of time while using meth, she said, they forget about the needs of their children. Meth has also moved into the high schools, she said, it has really taken a hold of young people, as young as 13.
Why? Falkowski said it gives the youths a feeling of control, is long-acting so kids can be "on it" a long time without having to redo it, and many kids, especially the girls, like the weight loss. She has seen girls at Hazelden who quickly became addicted.
Parents need to heed the warning signs, and investigate every strange change in patterns. Most assuredly, she said, treatment is required for recovery.
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