Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005
Source: Capital Press (OR)
Copyright: 2005 Capital Press Agriculture Weekly
Contact:  http://www.capitalpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/834
Author: Capital Press Agriculture Weekly

METH HURTS EVERYONE

You can see the hurt in her eyes. It's the hurt caused by years of
not knowing where her son was or whether he was safe.

Or whether he was alive.

Kathy Sherman is a typical mother, but atypical in an important way.
Her son, Brandon, survived a years-long battle against
methamphetamine, a drug that nearly destroyed him and is destroying
the lives of thousands of Americans and endangering or threatening
thousands of others.

"While meth was once an urban phenomenon, it is no more," according
to the Council of State Governments report, "Drug Abuse in America -
Rural Meth." "What started as a West Coast urban problem has spread
to rural areas throughout the country and is particularly problematic
among rural youth."

Meth put Brandon Sherman on a path that led through years of stealing
from friends and family, homelessness and, finally, to prison.

His body was ravaged by the drug A- at 6-foot-4, he weighed 140
pounds.

"He looked like a skeleton," his mother said.

His life was a series of petty thefts and break-ins to steal enough
merchandise to feed his drug habit. Finally, after he stole a
briefcase from a pickup truck and used the credit card in it, he was
arrested, convicted of identity theft and sent to prison for 18 months.

That stay in prison saved his life. He received treatment for his
addiction that broke the cycle that traps many meth addicts. After he
was released, a lumber mill took a chance on him and gave him a job,
and two years later he is again making a life for himself instead of
suffering through a meth-made nightmare.

Brandon, his mother and other citizens of the rural Santiam Canyon
area of Oregon have decided to fight back against the meth epidemic.
They have formed the Santiam Canyon No-Meth Task Force, whose goal is
to work with police, schools and others to become educated about the
evil of drug abuse and what can be done to end it.

The task force grew out of a frustration that the public was deceiving
itself that meth wasn't a problem in the rural areas, Kathy Sherman
said.

"They weren't ready to hear that they had a problem," she
said.

Then, as the number of break-ins and thefts and the amount of graffiti
continued to increase, citizens gradually came to recognize the
problem, she said. More than 130 people attended the first meeting of
the task force to look for answers to the problems meth poses to their
communities.

Residents of the Santiam Canyon are not alone. Around the rural West,
methamphetamine has continued to spread like wildfire. Unlike many
other drugs that require exotic raw ingredients or specialized
equipment to make, meth is easy to make from readily available
ingredients.

Rat poison, battery acid, lye, antifreeze, iodine and anhydrous
ammonia - all available at farm supply stores - can be used to make
meth using equipment no more exotic than a coffee pot or a cookie
sheet. Other ingredients include pseudophedrine, an over-the-counter
cold pill.

"A batch (of meth) costs about $100 to make and then can be sold for
about $1,000 on the street," according to the Council of State
Governments report.

"The National Drug Intelligence Center reports that 31 percent of all
state and local law enforcement agencies consider methamphetamine
their primary drug threat and 58 percent consider the availability of
the drug in their communities to range from medium to high," the
Council of State Governments said.

One rural teenager told his parents this week that meth, cocaine and
alcohol are all readily available at parties he attends.

California, Washington and Oregon are among the nine states that lead
the nation in meth-lab seizures, according to Join Together, an online
effort of the Boston University School of Public Health.

One of the side effects of having meth labs in rural areas is the end
products are dumped on farmland or in remote forests. Each pound of
meth produces up to six pounds of hazardous waste, poisoning the land
and anyone who touches it.

But the meth problem isn't just about addicts or stolen goods or
hazardous waste.

It's also about kids.

Like the meth cooks who put the drug in their children's drinks to
determine whether it was safe. The children's ages: 6 and 13.

Like the little girl who was forced to eat her own vomit because her
parents wouldn't feed her.

Like the children who are abandoned while mom and dad go missing.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reported that 2,000 children were
found at meth lab sites, 26 were injured and two were killed in a
single year.

These are true stories, and they illustrate the despicable, subhuman
behavior meth creates.

Among the steps that need to be taken are increasing
awareness.

In Oregon, state Department of Agriculture and other employees who
work in rural areas are trained to identify possible meth operations
and what to do.

In California, television commercials dramatically display the
devastating effects of meth production.

Some states require that pseudophedrine and other similar drugs no
longer be available over the counter.

Awareness of existing laws and the passage of new state and federal
laws aimed at stopping meth are all well and good, but the public must
stand up against meth and its purveyors, who victimize themselves,
their communities and their children.

Methamphetamine Ingredients

Iodine

Pseudophedrine (cold pills)

Road flares

Matchbook covers

Anhydrous ammonia

Rat poison

Battery acid

Lye

Antifreeze
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MAP posted-by: Derek