By A.M. Kelley
Catholic Herald

Students, parents learn dangers of meth

SUPERIOR -- Cathedral School in Superior sponsored a lecture on methamphetamine during Catholic Schools Week on Feb. 1.

Douglas County District Attorney Dan Blank delivered a frank and disturbing message to about 75 parents and students about the street drug.

"It's here and it's bad," Blank said, "and it's fairly accessible."

Principal Tim Johnson organized the event and opened it up to the public as a service to the community.

"It's good for parents to understand what's out there," he said.

Understanding the problem is critical because the problem is close to home. Blank said that meth has infiltrated the culture so thoroughly that its users can't be stereotyped.

"What children are at risk?" Blank said. "All socioeconomic groups."

Besides Blank, Johnson invited three other Superior professionals to share their expertise on the subject: Alisha Bliss, an outpatient chemical dependency counselor at HRC Mental Health Center; Rhonda Nagorski, Douglas County child protective intake and assessment supervisor; and Dr. Patrick Sura.

Sura, the medical director in the Douglas County Jail in Superior, said meth is a growing public health and corrections issue.

"There are 200 inmates in the jail," he said. "Fifty percent are there because of charges related to meth."

In the mid-1990s there were only 10 arrests and prosecutions in Douglas County with meth as the primary charge, according to Blank. In 2005 that number jumped to 90 cases.

"And this is the tip of the iceberg," he said. "These are just the people reckless or careless enough to get caught."

From a starting point in California and in Texas along the Mexican border, meth use has spread rapidly across the country. According to Blank, part of the reason is the prevalence of marijuana and its reputation as a harmless recreational drug. In drug enforcement circles, marijuana is known as a "gateway drug."

"It lowers inhibitions and makes users more likely to try other drugs," he said.

Meth is also highly addictive and Blank believes minors can purchase it more easily than alcohol. It is very portable, not difficult to manufacture and can be made using ordinary household tools and products such as acetone, rubbing alcohol, iodine, paint thinner and an over-the-counter cold and allergy medication, pseudoephedrine.

In efforts to stop the meth drug problem, pseudoephedrine was named a controlled substance in 2005 and taken off pharmacy shelves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, among other states. It is kept behind pharmacy counters now and can still be purchased but not in bulk quantities or anonymously. This has eliminated many small household laboratories around the state, Blank said. However this control measure has not eliminated the drug problem.

"Now most (meth) is produced and distributed from southern California and Mexico," he said.

Parents in the audience wanted to know how to tell if children are using a drug like meth. Blank said red flags are changes in sleeping and eating patterns or changes in friends. Once a person begins to use meth, his or her deterioration is rapid and behavior alters radically.

"Trust your instincts as a parent," he said. "If you start to get bad vibes, stay calm but deal with it."

There are ample reasons for the medical community to be as concerned as parents. Babies who are born to meth-addicted mothers come into the world in drug withdrawal, according to Sura. There is research on the deleterious effects of alcohol on fetuses and newborns, and even though studies on meth-damaged babies are not yet available, there's no question it is causing great harm.

Meth use creates problems on many levels. When local social workers in Nagorski's agency receive child abuse or neglect complaints, case workers must investigate. The problems of home visits are compounded when meth is involved. Users are highly volatile and unpredictable.

"It's dangerous for social workers to go into these homes," Nagorski said. "Law enforcement officers must go along. This adds a further expense."

Meth use destroys families. When adults are users and children are removed from the home, the odds of recovery for these adults are apparently slim.

"We have never been able to reunite children with their parents," Nagorski said.

Treatment programs -- one is called "matrix" -- are now being developed for meth users, Bliss said. Half of all the drug treatment cases her agency currently has on the books are meth-related.

Some people think that meth use is a passing problem, "like the flavor of the day," Nagorski said. "It's a very serious problem in our community. It grows every day."

Prevention and education are key elements in fighting the problem. Included in the fifth grade curriculum at Cathedral School is the national Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

According to D.A.R.E., 70 to 90 percent of all crime in the United States is drug related and jails are very expensive institutions to maintain.

"Prevention costs a lot less of our tax dollars," Sura said.

While meth strains the budgets of local law enforcement, social services and mental health agencies, and is taking a toll in human lives, Blank reminded the audience that its victims are tragic figures and ended on a note of charity and hope.

"The theme of Catholic Schools Week is "Character. Compassion. Values," he said. "We can't just turn our backs. It's crossing every boundary. We have an obligation to help before we start labeling people freaks."

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006