Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jul 2005
Source: Union Democrat, The (Sonora, CA)
Copyright: 2005 Western Communications, Inc
Contact:  http://uniondemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/846
Author: Amy Lindblom
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

Series: Meth In The Mother Lode (Part 3a)

TOUGH BUT TRUE TALK ON METH: INMATES AND COPS HELP EDUCATE TEENS

Former meth dealer Rob Cardenas was serving a second-strike prison term at 
Sierra Conservation Center when he spoke to a group of teens, all of whom 
had used meth and some of whom had also dealt the drug and stolen to get 
money to buy it.

Cardenas said if he ever breaks the law again, or is caught with even one 
bag of methamphetamine, he will be back in prison for the rest of his life.

"And not one as nice as Sierra Conservation Center," he told a half-dozen 
teens late last year at Rite of Passage - a San Andreas-area school for 
juvenile criminal offenders, most of them from out of the area.

Whether it's Southern California, the Bay Area or the Mother Lode, the 
effects of methamphetamine can be seen throughout the state. And educating 
children and adults alike is a key element in trying to fight the war on meth.

Cops like Jim Mele, head of the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Department 
narcotics team, don't want to see kids having to deal with the consequences 
of using meth.

That's why Mele brings 30-to 90-minute presentations to high school classes 
and church youth groups. He also meets with service groups and hospital nurses.

Besides the statistics he shows about drug usage during the last 10 years, 
there are graphic photos.

One shows a Tuolumne County man burned almost beyond recognition after a 
meth lab exploded.

He also shows a startling series of 12 police booking photos showing the 
physical deterioration of a young blonde-haired Hollywood woman after five 
years of meth use. The final photo shows the woman's face, sallow and 
toothless.

High school students who see the photos often groan. It's the reaction Mele 
is looking for.

"If they see what it looks like to use meth, maybe they won't want to use 
it," he said.

A small portion of Tuolumne Narcotics Team's $730,000 annual budget is 
spent on educating the public about the dangers of meth, Mele said.

About $450,000 of the budget this year came from state and federal grants 
given to fight drug crimes.

However, each year since Sept. 11, 2001, more and more of the federal grant 
money has been redirected to Homeland Security. And on top of that there 
have been state and county budget cuts, Mele said.

Judging from the half-dozen teens who gathered around the SCC prison 
inmates, more education is needed.

All of the teens in the group gathered before Cardenas, then serving time 
at SCC, admitted to using meth. Some had sold the drug. Others confessed to 
stealing to get money to buy it.

These teens are already juvenile offenders, however, the goal is for them 
to turn their lives around. And that's why the SCC inmates put more focus 
on Rite of Passage than area high schools.

Cardenas and two other prison inmates spent many hours giving teens the 
real-life story about drugs, "gang-banging" and life in prison.

"You can spend all night long selling (drugs) and is that going to get you 
that mansion?" he asked the teens. "It's going to get you this orange 
jumpsuit and a hotel room in the Jamestown prison. Man, you gotta start 
thinking."

Matt Petro, since released from SCC, told the teens he'd learned new 
behaviors in prison and recognized his old friends were not friends at all.

"We call these people friends who give you a bowl, a line or a gun," Petro 
said. "They aren't your friends. My homies in my neighborhood said they 
loved me all day long, but they loved me only because they wanted me to do 
things for them."

Cardenas talks like the teens, has tattoos like them and knows what the 
kids have been through.

"It's the same corner, the same bag of   ," he said. "I'm tired of all 
these war stories about drugs. It is all so boring."

Dr. Todd Stolp, director of the Tuolumne County Public Health Department, 
said the ultimate solution to the meth epidemic is not controlling the 
supply, but rather changing a culture that resorts to artificial pleasures 
like drug usage.

Stolp said people must find pleasure in more constructive outlets.

"The components that lead to methamphetamine use are the ones, as a 
society, we need to address," he said.

The doctor cited socioeconomic factors like being raised in an abusive 
family where kids turn to meth use to give them a simple way to feel better.

And because meth is relatively cheap to get and so highly addictive, Stolp 
said, it is hard to combat.

Union Democrat reporter Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Beth