She's the woman you see at the mall, with her 13-year-old tagging behind her.

Getting into her sedan at the end of the trip, new pink sweater in the Macy's bag, her cell phone rings.

But sometimes when Mechelle Leifson's phone rings, the mother of four recovering drug addicts' heart jumps.

There have been too many late night phone calls in the past six years for her stomach to not still drop, for her to not worry about her boys.

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Between hourly updates on the decomposing body of Anna Nicole Smith and the balding of Britney Spears, we can confidently declare that the Jerry Springerization of America is complete.

The travails of these two tragic characters would be of little interest in a normal world, but "celebrity" is the new normal. Like it or not, we're all in this together.

Britney and Anna Nicole, after all, are our inventions. We made them celebrities, awarded them icon status, gave them life. Now, like Dr. Frankenstein upon realizing he's created a monster, we've become instruments of their undoing.

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Cheap, available and addictive, prescription and over-the-counter medications have fast become the drug of choice for many, local and national health officials say.

"It's really taken off. It's a big problem," said Brock Alder, director of the substance abuse division of the Bear River Health Department.

The department treated 19 people for opiate addiction in 2002, according to BRHD statistics. In 2006, that number jumped to 92.

Behind marijuana, prescription pills are the second-most abused drug among teens, according to a White House analysis. In a report released last week, the Office of the National Drug Control Policy said new users of prescription drugs have caught up with new users of marijuana.

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What should be done to help Americans who are using drugs and experiencing collateral consequences, such as HIV and hepatitis?

Those attending the second national Conference on Methamphetamine, HIV and Hepatitis in Salt Lake City this week voiced a clear consensus: More research about the effects of meth on women, an understanding about the universal draw to the drug and continued justice-system reform that emphasizes treatment over incarceration.

The focus needs to be on education, prevention and treatment, experts agreed.

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The second National Conference of Methamphetamine, HIV and Hepatitis has drawn scientists, politicians, teachers and front-line workers from across the country to Utah this week to discuss a new era in meth treatment and prevention.

The opening address Thursday included remarks from Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who summarized the state of meth in Utah and beyond with alarming figures of growth - meth-related emergency room visits have more than doubled since 1995 and there are five times as many people in treatment for meth today as 1992. The mayor also congratulated Utah's Harm Reduction Project director, Luciano Colonna, calling his organization's meth policy "sensible and effective."

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Program Focused On Parolees With Drug Problems Aims To Save State

Mike Wulf's drug addiction began at age 14 atop a building, when a relative offered him methamphetamine - dubbed "go fast" - to help him get a roofing job done quickly. Mark Naylor was a returned missionary when he was introduced to Ecstacy at a club, then got hooked on heroin. Steve Fenstermaker began using drugs after his wife died, leaving him three young children to raise. He eventually became a leader in a ring that was cooking meth and stealing credit cards, police said. Felix Strong, introduced to crack by friends, soon found how profitable it was to sell and couldn't resist the easy money, despite multiple arrests. For months, the men have been living at the First Step House in Salt Lake City as part of an experiment known as DORA, or the Drug Offender Reform Act. The goal: Give intense treatment to addicted criminals while they are on probation, hopefully saving the state money in the long run as they re-enter society. Each man's focus is on how success or failure will affect his own life. But the group's choices also will affect the decisions of policymakers, who must decide whether to invest more tax dollars once funding for the $1.4 million pilot program ends in 2008.

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In 1997, Marty Ann Young was the optimistic first graduate of Utah's pilot drug court. "I want to cry every time I think about how I was," the 36-year-old told The Salt Lake Tribune, describing a cocaine addiction that led her to drop out of nursing school, give up custody of her four children and serve stints in jail. Today, Young is being sought on two warrants for drug-related charges. Her story illustrates what judges do and do not know. There are no long-term studies on whether, or which, drug-court graduates stay off drugs and out of trouble.

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$4.5 Million Treatment Push

For Single Moms, Failure And Relapse Rates Are High; For The State, Kids Are Safe And It's Cheaper Than Jail

TOOELE - As 28-year-old Tori Curran walks down a narrow hallway in the county courthouse, portraits of smiling Miss Tooele pageant princesses gaze down at her.

She steps into Judge Mike Kouris' courtroom, where the young women inside have led less than picture-perfect lives. Like Curran, many are single mothers who want to raise happy children but who struggle with addiction and relationships.

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Salt Lake City's Harm Reduction Project Finds Success Where The War On Drugs Has Failed.

The phone rings at the end of the day at Harm Reduction Project's offices on 100 South and 300 West. The project's last client--either a drug user or sex worker--has just left with a bus token. Project Executive Director Luciano Colonna excuses himself to take the call.

"We're putting you on the agenda for the first day. You're speaking on a panel called 'Your Kid's on Meth,'" Colonna tells the woman on the end, a scheduled speaker for the project's upcoming methamphetamine conference.

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I'm writing about the not-so-thoughtful letter from former Rep. Jim Platt who in 1969 proposed that meth be criminalized in Utah ["Utah's Meth History," Letters, Dec. 28, City Weekly].

In 1969, when meth was legally available in doctor's offices or in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, we didn't have much a of meth problem. We do today.

In 1969, meth was not a household word. It is today. In 1969, we didn't have stories almost every month about meth lab busts in a cheap motels or trailer parks. We do today.

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Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Unveils A $10.2 Million Campaign Focusing On Prevention And Rehab

Wendy Ahlgren grew up in a middle-class, Mormon family of seven where drugs and alcohol were considered taboo, but rarely discussed. The 47-year-old, who describes herself as "naive," has struggled with depression for as long as she can remember.

For Jodi, flirting with drugs and alcohol was a teenage "rite of passage." Her grandfather was a bootlegger during the Prohibition era, several of her uncles dealt drugs and her father was an alcoholic. They considered it a lifestyle filled with romance, not danger.

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I'm writing about John Saltas' thoughtful column "Wars 'R' Us" [Private Eye, Dec. 28, City Weekly]. I'd like to add that the Iraq war and our drug war have a lot in common. Both were started under false pretenses. To most Americans, the word "democracy" is a noble word. To most Iraqis, the ideal government and only legitimate government is a Muslim theocracy.

The drug war was started to solve problems that didn't exist. Our so-called war on drugs has created many more problems than it has solved. Prior to the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords, drug cartels or even drug dealers as we know them today. Prior to our invasion and occupation of Iraq, our so-called leaders told us it would be like hitting a pinata, and all sorts of goodies would fall down (like cheap oil). Instead we have whacked the side of a hornet's nest.

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Thanks to Ben Fulton for recognizing Governor Hunstman's commitment to battling methamphetamine addiction in Utah. It is time to take a holistic and compassionate approach to meth by emphasizing treatment and family unity. But I do take exception to the characterization of meth as the "fiercest and most dangerous of all illegal drugs" that is not only physically devastating but also nearly impossible to treat. There is new research in the January 2007 Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment that reveals there is little difference between treatment outcomes for users of methamphetamine and other hard drugs.

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Kudos to Gov. Huntsman for Giving Methamphetamine Addiction the Attention It Deserves.

Here are some facts about U.S. drug enforcement law, and illegal drugs, you may or may not be aware of:

Despite the fact that it's darned hard on your lungs compared to mainstream tobacco, marijuana's toxicity is less than half that of heroin or cocaine. Despite the fact that millions of baby boomers have inhaled marijuana's mind-altering active chemicals, these same people are hardly seeking treatment for addiction. Although psychologically addictive--along with television, desserts and other items offered legally in our society--the evidence that marijuana poses any physiological addictive threat is scant at best. In fact, there's strong evidence it's effective in treating cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. How curious, then, that the Federal Drug Administration licensed a drug called Marinol that mimics marijuana's medicinal effects, even as it prohibits any medical testing of marijuana's benefits. Even the UK's straight-laced Economist magazine chimed in as of late. "Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians like it or not," it wrote.

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Did The Last Person Living In Your Home Smoke Meth Does It Matter

Nicole says her mother watched a local TV news broadcast last November about a do-it-yourself kit to test for meth contamination in homes and became convinced her granddaughter's earaches were caused by Utah's scariest drug.

She picked up a free swab and test tube. Then, after nagging Nicole to do the test, she handed in a sample from Nicole's apartment with $45. The result: Nicole and her 3-year-old daughter hastily packed up bare necessities and abandoned their West Temple apartment.

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I have one quibble with Ben Fulton's column ["Speed Limit," Note From the Editor, Dec. 21, City Weekly] regarding cannabis compared with tobacco: Asthma is a qualifying disease under California's Compassionate Use Act.

Marijuana is "darned hard on your lungs?" Hardly. This boomer has enjoyed it often, since 1968. Please see the latest UC/Tashkin study for evidence that smoking cannabis does not cause and may even prevent cancer. That same study found conclusive evidence of tobacco's carcinogenic effects.

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The number of Americans killed while fighting in the Middle East has now topped the number of Americans killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. We're fast approaching 3,000 killed in Iraq. In her weekly column, Ann Coulter recently wrote that if we stayed in Iraq 10 years and lost another 3,000, that would be an acceptable loss if we don't have another terrorist attack on American soil. I disagree.

Not just because I think she has the worst legs in America (which would have been unleashed at Abu Ghraib if not in direct violation of the Geneva Accords), but also because I think that Ann (at this point, if I were Ann, I'd insert something like, "Ann, which is short for Hassann"--she does that all the time when referring to Democrats and thinks it's funny) epitomizes the face of false and deceptive bravado that is a hallmark of the far right of American politics.

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Kudos to Gov. Huntsman for Giving Methamphetamine Addiction the Attention It Deserves.

Here are some facts about U.S. drug enforcement law, and illegal drugs, you may or may not be aware of:

Despite the fact that it's darned hard on your lungs compared to mainstream tobacco, marijuana's toxicity is less than half that of heroin or cocaine. Despite the fact that millions of baby boomers have inhaled marijuana's mind-altering active chemicals, these same people are hardly seeking treatment for addiction. Although psychologically addictive--along with television, desserts and other items offered legally in our society--the evidence that marijuana poses any physiological addictive threat is scant at best. In fact, there's strong evidence it's effective in treating cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. How curious, then, that the Federal Drug Administration licensed a drug called Marinol that mimics marijuana's medicinal effects, even as it prohibits any medical testing of marijuana's benefits. Even the UK's straight-laced Economist magazine chimed in as of late. "Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians like it or not," it wrote.

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"This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice." - OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Jr. (1841-1935) Supreme Court Justice

When U.S. District Court Judge Paul Cassell sentenced Utah record producer and pot dealer Weldon Angelos to 55 years in prison, he was following the law.

When he joined with a who's who of the American bar to argue that that very sentence was, in Cassell's words, "unjust, cruel and even irrational," he was seeking justice.

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ST. GEORGE - A group of recovering addicts put a new spin on charity Saturday.

Offering secondhand goods and barbecue from a Rite Aid parking lot in St. George, alumni of the Washington County drug court had raised more than $180 midway through a holiday rummage sale. All proceeds will go to local charities to buy food and gifts for needy families.

But rarely has service meant so much to the ones lending a hand. "Doing things like this - giving back to the community - that's how we stay clean and sober," said Paul Paget, who has been sober since 2004.

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