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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth