Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR) Copyright: 2005 The Mail Tribune Contact: http://www.mailtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/642 Note: Source rarely prints LTEs received from outside its circulation area Author: Sarah Lemon Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) FUNDS TO FIGHT METH GIVE AGENCIES A BOOST More than $400,000 in grants and public money will fuel a focused fight against local methamphetamine use. About $215,000 was awarded Thursday to drug-treatment agencies, Kids Unlimited and the Southern Oregon Child & Family Council. Recipients are working with the Jackson County Meth Task Force to enhance treatment and support for meth addicts and education for at-risk, middle-school students and Head Start families. The remaining funds have been pledged by Jackson County. "We are taking back our community, and we have done the first mile," said Carin Niebuhr, county alcohol and drug program manager and task force coordinator. Created last year to target meth, the task force will focus over the next two years on rehabilitating meth users, stabilizing families affected by meth and increasing public safety and prevention. Locally, meth is blamed for overburdening public resources, including jails, courts, social services and schools. Advertisement OnTrack Inc., a local drug and alcohol treatment provider, received the largest grant of $97,491 to enhance the existing Community Family Court program. The money also will provide legal services to resolve addicts' landlord-tenant disputes, restraining orders, divorces and other civil cases, all of which can hamper addiction recovery, said Rita Sullivan, OnTrack executive director. Addictions Recovery Center (ARC) was granted $43,880 to expand meth treatment into a yearlong program and to provide transitional housing for female addicts. Meth users need longer terms of treatment than other drug addicts because some of meth's effects only subside after one and a half to two years, said Christine Mason, ARC executive director. "Wrapping our arms around them for the first year will really give folks the support they need," Mason said. Kids Unlimited received $39,632 to take Project Alert -- a nationally recognized drug-prevention program -- into Medford and White City middle schools. Kids Unlimited will add a component specific to contemporary meth use with the help of ARC, said Executive Director Tom Cole. Southern Oregon Child & Family Council will use $33,997 to educate Head Start families on the dangers of meth use and to help them obtain drug treatment. All grants were funded by the Reed and Carolee Walker Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation. Jackson County has pledged an additional $200,000 taken from its Health and Human Services and general fund budgets. The money will provide intensive services over one year for 20 families in the grip of meth use, said County Administrator Sue Slack. The program will fill any need, including employment, food and housing, to help families kick the meth habit, she said. "We think that this radical approach ... will make a difference," Slack said. Oregon meth use is six times higher than the national average, said Bryan Johnston, interim director of the state's department of human services. Johnston commended the cooperative efforts of the county's meth task force, which, he said, is leading the state's fight against the illegal drug. He predicted Thursday that the problem will soon gain the attention of Congress. "As the nation looks to Oregon on how to solve this, Oregon is going to be looking to Jackson County," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth