Pubdate: Fri, 03 Nov 2006 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: http://www.stltoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418 Author: Robert Kelly Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METH USERS ARE FINDING WAYS AROUND NEW LAWS, FORUM TOLD HIGH RIDGE -- Despite new laws limiting access to a key ingredient in methamphetamine, the drug remains a serious problem in Jefferson County, speakers at a forum on meth abuse said this week. A large part of the problem is that methamphetamine is so extremely addictive, they said. "I have never in my life met a social methamphetamine user -- never," said Mark Wiggins, manager of Comtrea's Athena Center, a residential treatment center at De Soto for drug and alcohol abusers. Instead, Wiggins said, meth is so powerful that users can become addicted from the first time they try it. Then nothing else matters to them but using meth again, he said. He was part of a panel of experts on meth at Wednesday's forum, which was sponsored by the Jefferson County Methamphetamine Action Coalition at the High Ridge Fire Department headquarters. The coalition is a new group of county agencies that are pooling information to find the best ways to combat meth in the county. Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Higginbotham, commander of the Jefferson County drug task force, says recent state and federal laws limiting the amounts of pseudoephedrine that people may buy at one time made it much more difficult for meth cooks to operate in the county. Pseudoephedrine, legally used to treat colds and allergies, is a key ingredient in meth. Even so, Higginbotham said, it remains difficult to track meth cooks who go from drugstore to drugstore to buy the total numbers of cold tablets they need to make meth. "We need a real-time tracking system" to follow those meth cooks, he said. He said the laws might need to be strengthened to require pharmacies to share information about who's buying pseudoephedrine each day. Higginbotham added that Jefferson County was experiencing an increase in imported meth since restrictions had been imposed last year on pseudoephedrine purchases locally. Much of the imported meth is an even more powerful form of the drug that is made in Mexico, he said. "We're still dealing with the meth labs here, and it's also being shipped in," he said. Jefferson County has led the state since 2003 in the number of meth labs raided by police. Higginbotham said county authorities already had raided more than 260 labs so far this year. They raided a total of 260 meth labs last year. Tricia Casey, an emergency medical services worker with the Rock Township Ambulance District, told the forum that she was most disturbed on her calls to meth labs by the lack of concern meth cooks and users often had, even for their own children who might be in the next room. "With the meth users, it seems like they just don't care," Casey said. "We've found children taking care of themselves, basically." More than half of all children placed in foster care in Jefferson County are put there because of drug abuse in their families, said Ed Tasch of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in the St. Louis area. "We've got to be looking at this problem in terms of long-term solutions and not just fixing things when they break," Tasch told the forum. He said his agency was conducting several school-based programs to try to stem drug and alcohol problems before they start. The council starts at the elementary school level with programs on how to make friends, handle conflicts, set life goals and resolve disputes, he said. "These are skills that can be taught to prevent problems later," Tasch said. He added, "You've got to address why people are involved in this entire drug culture in the first place." He noted that what may start as recreational or social use of alcohol or marijuana can lead to abuse of meth or other drugs later. Early education can be key to preventing those problems, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman