Meth, Shattered Lives, Part 5B

SENATOR SEEKS OPTIONS FOR DAUGHTER, OTHERS

Sen. Carol Martin's heart was aching.

Her 19-year-old daughter Alisha, arrested in a raid on a methamphetamine
lab near Marlow, was in jail.

"I did not choose to bail her out," Martin said softly. "They have to learn
the consequences."

Martin, who'd spent Friday finding a place where her daughter could be
evaluated over the next 72 hours, talked about things that might be done to
better help children like Alisha Martin, a victim of methamphetamine.

More things are needed to help parents and their children become more aware
of drug problems, she said.

We do not adequately fund mental health, said Carol Martin, a Republican
senator from Comanche in Stephens County.

"Right now, we do not have enough people that could help people with
problems like my daughter," she said.

Martin's daughter was diagnosed as bipolar and manic depressive. That
diagnosis wasn't made until she was in the U.S. Marine Corps, Martin said.

The Martin family has been trying to find ways to help their daughter since
just before she was 16, Martin said. They sent her to Thunderbird boot camp
for troubled teens. If her daughter had refused to go, the family couldn't
have forced her, Martin said.

"If I put her in a clinic, she can walk out," Martin said.

One of the things Martin has learned in working with her daughter is that
people with drug and alcohol problems often suffer from mental disorders.

More funding for mental health programs would make counseling services
accessible to more people such as her daughter, Martin said.

"This could be an opportunity for my daughter to be able to go in and be
put into a mental facility so she can get the adequate help," Martin said.

Many times, drug users are put in jail, where little or no rehabilitation
treatment is available, she said.

Another thing facing a teen-ager with a drug problem is low self esteem,
Martin said.

"We need to have more after-school programs, more awareness, more
self-esteem programs," Martin said.

Her daughter has a learning disability, she said. She couldn't stay focused
in school although she was smart, Martin said.

She was good in sports but because she couldn't keep her grades up, she was
ineligible and couldn't play.

One thing parents are told is to keep their children active, Martin said.

"Until they get 16 or 17, why should we worry about eligibility?" Martin
said. "If she (Alisha) had been active in basketball and stayed focused on
playing basketball, it may have helped."

Often children who are on drugs are outcasts, she said. They don't fit in
and become easy prey for drug dealers.

"We're going to have to start talking about priorities and looking at
funding and how we can fund areas for mentally at-risk people," Martin
said. "Right now, there are mental health counselors who are working 60
hours a week, some of them volunteering."

Martin is awaiting approval of a judge to permit her daughter to be placed
in a mental health facility for evaluation, she said. In the meantime, she
has been receiving telephone calls of support from friends and from people
she doesn't know.

Some calls are from people with similar problems.

A woman who called her said she's done tough love, no love and
unconditional love, but there seems to be no place to get help, Martin said.

"Drugs are so plentiful," Martin said. "It doesn't matter what your
economic status is. All kinds of kid are on dope."