CONFERENCE TAKES HARD LOOK AT LOCAL DRUGS

When baby Harold Harris' body was found in November 2005, Melanie
Richmond blamed drugs for the tragedy.

A month after Nacogdoches County deputies found Harold decmoposing in
the woods near his mother's rent house, Richmond had formed a local
coalition -- Healing Helpers -- to avoid similar tragedies. Christy
Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (ENLARGE) Linda Silvas of Sequim, Wash.,
second from left, leads a group in drum playing during her
performance at the Healing Helpers Coalition conference in SFA's
University Center Ballroom on Wednesday. Silva is a member of the
Juaneno Band of Mission Indians. Participants are, from left, Sharon
Walker, Tammy Ellis and Charles Flanery.

"I'm not a Ph.D, but I'm a local mother," she said. "And the death of
Harold Harris -- after losing him, I knew we needed to do more in our
area, more to help those at risk."

Children who grow up in drug-infested homes sustain physical and
mental abuse and often become addicted before birth, she said, and
her main goal is to help those kids.

To help further the work of the Healing Helpers Coalition, Richmond
and others planned a three-day conference to bring together "the
Ph.Ds and the mothers" to assess methamphetamine and other drug use
in East Texas.

Beginning with a Louisiana doctor who is searching for new ways to
treat addicts, the conference started Wednesday night at SFA's
Student Center. The doctor, Nicholas Goeders, is a professor and head
of the department of pharmacology, toxicology and neuroscience at
Louisiana State University Shreveport.

Methamphetamine clinics are notoriously bad at reforming addicts,
Goeders said. Users complete the 28-day programs, and 97 percent
relapse, he said.

"Most of the treatments that don't work mimic the effects of drugs,"
said Goeders, a mustachioed, academic-looking professor who wore a
dark suit for his presentation. "The person is still addicted to the
drug (but has stopped using it during treatment)."

Goeders has begun designing a new treatment program that uses
pre-existing medications in tandem to block the triggers that cause
addicts to want drugs -- the point where addiction begins. Driving by
a house where a recovering addict formerly bought meth can trigger a
relapse, he said, and Goeders' proposed treatment would block that
trigger in the addict's brain.

"Addiction is so complex," he said, pondering the reasons that drew
him to study drug addiction. "How does it make people give up
everything they have? ... What makes it so strong that they would
risk stroke or death or prison to use drugs?"

Tom Owens, a vocational nurse for almost 30 years, began planning the
conference a year ago. Scrambling before the speakers began Wednesday
afternoon, he wore a black cowboy hat and a black T-shirt that read
Don't Meth With Texas, mimicking the design of the anti-littering campaign.

Working with addicts and those hurt by addicts, he said he knows too
much about what's happening to families and children.

"There have been too many children in Nacogdoches County and Angelina
County who end up dead," he said in a gravelly voice. "This situation
is just absolutely appalling."

The Healing Helpers Coalition's conference at SFA continues today.
Visit the second floor of the student center for a full schedule of
events. Various speakers will present messages across campus.

Steven Steiner, who debates against the legalization of illegal
drugs, will speak at 2 p.m. today. Wednesday night, Steiner appeared
on Lou Dobbs Tonight, a CNN news program. He says that a few
millionaires with a "secular progressive agenda" are funding the
fight to legalize drugs such as marijuana across the country.

"They're spending millions of dollars a year -- $15 to $20 million --
which is far more than I have," he said.