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Meth Task Force Discusses The Growing Scourge

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1101/a07.html
Newshawk: chip

Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jul 2005
Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation
Contact: tnletters@hendersonvillenews.com
Website: http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793
Author: Harmony Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH TASK FORCE DISCUSSES THE GROWING SCOURGE

Fifteen people committed to raising public awareness of Henderson County's methamphetamine problem met for the first time Monday to examine ways to educate residents on the drug's impact.  In a meeting at Appalachian Counseling on Williams Street, the committee, half of the newly formed Methamphetamine Task Force, began looking at ways to slow the drug's epidemic growth.  Talks centered on how to make the community aware of the problem, which has skyrocketed in Henderson County in the past five years.

In 1999, Sheriff's Department drug detectives investigated six meth cases, seizing $3,855 worth of the drug.  Last year, they investigated 122 meth cases and seized $201,722.  From January through June of this year, detectives already have worked 67 meth cases and seized $220,425.  The highly addictive stimulant has effects similar to cocaine but is cheaper and lasts longer.  Made from a combination of cold medicine and toxic household chemicals, meth can be "cooked" anywhere but usually in rural areas, its ingredients highly flammable and costly to clean up.  The committee plans to model its efforts after those implemented by the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project, a statewide task force that saw a decrease in the number of meth users after its first year in existence.  "There are a lot of things already in place that we can take in and modify for our use," said Charlene Nicely, committee chairwoman and clinical director of Pavilion, a Mill Spring treatment facility.  Informational brochures and training sessions tailored to different age levels are among the measures group members said they would like to implement.  Seminars would be given to professional, civic and community organizations on how to identify meth labs and users.  The task force was created in May after nearly 50 educators, social workers, counselors, nurses, law enforcement officers and business professionals met to discuss meth's impact on the area.  Last month, the group split into two subcommittees.  The second group, which will hold its first meeting at noon, July 19, in the Mountain Laurel training room off Fleming Street, plans to develops policies and protocols for agencies that deal with meth users.

Initial publicity about the task force is alerting some people to the problem, committee member said.

Debbie Ward, a pharmacist at Eckerd Drugs on U.S.  25 North, said a woman recently called her crying, wanting to know if the task force could help her daughter, a meth addict.

"Well, we're not that far along yet," Ward told her, and then referred the distraught mother to Appalachian Counseling, which plans to implement an intensive, meth-specific treatment program next month.