Pubdate: Sun, 22 Oct 2006
Source: Spectrum, The ( St. George, UT)
Copyright: 2006 The Spectrum
Contact: http://www.thespectrum.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.thespectrum.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2483
Author: Ryan Dionne

A GROWING PROBLEM

CEDAR CITY - Contrary to what many people believe, teaching kids 
about drugs at a young age is perhaps better than letting them figure 
things out on their own.

"They're going to be exposed to it eventually in their life," said 
Iron County Schools Secondary Education Director Paul Maggio. "You 
have to acknowledge that it's there."

In addition to the DARE program, local schools are joining others in 
the country for the national Red Ribbon Week, which starts Monday.

Red Ribbon Week is designed to teach students, as young as elementary 
school, about drugs and how to say "no" before they learn the 
consequences from peers or through using themselves.

"The biggest thing is education," said Cedar City Police Sgt. Darin 
Adams. "That is so key."

Students in Iron County start learning about drugs when they are 
about 10 years old through the DARE program, but Adams thinks parents 
should talk to their kids before that.

However, many parents think that if they talk with their children 
about drugs at such a young age, they will be introducing bad habits 
really early in life.

"It's not gonna do that," Adams said. "I've never seen that happen."

The Cedar City Police Department has been teaching students about 
drugs as part of Red Ribbon Week for at least 10 years, and each time 
the program has been a success.

Coupled with skits, drug dog demonstrations and educational 
presentations, students learn the negative aspects of drugs before 
they have a chance to succumb to peer pressure.

"I think it's been received very well," Adams said. "Just awareness I 
think is huge."

Though it's not currently prevalent in schools, one drug that runs 
rampant throughout Iron County and the surrounding area and impacts 
many parents is methamphetamine.

Addiction

Even though meth labs haven't been found in Iron County for a couple 
of years, it doesn't mean the drug is absent from the area.

"I think it's on the rise," Adams said.

Between the Iron County Sheriff's Office and the Cedar City and Enoch 
police departments, there have been roughly 70 to 80 meth-related 
arrests this year, he said.

And the Iron/Garfield Counties Narcotics Task Force, which is the 
main drug enforcement agency for the area and often targets dealers 
instead of users, made more than 140 meth-related arrests last year.

More than 90 percent of those were dealers, said Keith Millett, 
commander of the drug task force.

"If people knew really how much (meth) was out there, they'd be 
frightened," Millett said. "It's definitely the biggest threat to our 
society in this area."

While many other drugs, like heroine, create physical addictions, 
meth is different.

"What's scary about meth is it's a psychological addiction," Millett 
said. "So a lot of people get addicted to that feeling."

And the addiction comes fast.

"It's a pretty a bad deal, that meth, it just kinda tears you to 
pieces," said Clint, a former meth addict who has been clean for six years.

Clint, who didn't want his last name printed, started using meth when 
he was 14 and was hooked for 16 years.

"There's about three years I don't remember nothin'. I don't remember 
nothin,'" Clint said. "Meth runs your life. No matter what else is 
goin' on in your life, meth is what's gotcha. So that's what you 
chase, and that's what you go for."

Because of the chemical reaction between meth and the user's body, 
addicts experience extreme emotional highs and lows, often feel like 
they can do anything, and sometimes have an enhanced sexual sensation.

"I felt like I was on top of the world at first," Clint said. "Oh 
yeah, I could do anything."

And because of the extreme addiction, meth is hard to escape.

"It's the devil. There's no other way to put it. It's just pure 
evil," Adams said.

The path to prevention

Meth is often trafficked into Iron County from St. George. But that 
meth often comes from Las Vegas after originating in Mexico.

"The main problem is (that) we need to close off our borders," 
Millett said. "As long as people want it, it's gonna become available."

But the availability is something that shouldn't matter if people 
know the consequences of the drug up front, and that's where early 
education comes into play.

"If you choose to go with people that are doing it, then that's the 
route you're gonna go. If you choose to go with the kids that aren't, 
then that's the other route," Clint said.

"There's a fork in the road. You either go one way or the other. 
There's no down the middle. It's all about who you hang out with," he said.

Clint chose the wrong route, he said, and suffered the consequences. 
After serving a year in jail for dealing meth, he straightened up his life.

"I don't remember the first couple months of being locked up," he 
said, because his addiction took such a toll on his body.

But after six years of being drug-free, Clint has a family and owns a 
local business.

"It takes time to dig your way out of it, but I have," he said. "It's 
either prison, death or life. I chose life."
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