METH FOR KIDS: POLICE BRACE FOR ARRIVAL OF NEW METH DRUG

On the street they call it "strawberry quick."

It looks like pink crystal rock candy, but nothing could be further
from the truth.

Chemists shape methamphetamine from lye, battery acid, lithium from
batteries and acetone, to name but a few lovely ingredients.

"Meth is the most serious addictive drug I have seen, and I have
worked with heroin and other street drugs," said Darlene Duncan, a
social worker on the board of the Gila County Meth Coalition at a
recent workshop on children and meth for court-appointed special
advocates (CASAs).

The specter of a form of meth designed to appeal to kids is just the
latest incarnation of a drug that already accounts for almost all of
the cases in which the state removed children from their homes in
Payson. Police say it's the biggest drug problem in Rim Country at
present, although experts believe public education campaigns have cut
into its use.

Experts say meth dealers have now given their addictive product a
youth-friendly look with flavored crystals that constitute just one
form of the drug.

Strawberry meth first turned up in Nevada in 2007.

"They say it is not in Arizona, which tells me that they simply have
not found it in Arizona because it is in Utah and Colorado -- it's
all around us," Duncan said.

"Globe Police were told there was strawberry meth at the high school.
They investigated and did not find it, but that tells me kids know
about it," Duncan said.

"Most meth comes to Arizona from super-labs in Mexico," she
added.

"Yaba" a combination of meth and caffeine or sometimes the drug
ecstasy, comes in water-soluble pills stamped with popular cartoon
characters.

"So you might have a kid carrying around a water cooler who says, 'it's
just water,' and it is not," Duncan said.

The first time someone uses meth, the drug hits 13 different pleasure
centers in the brain. By contrast, sexual intercourse might trigger
three or four, Duncan said.

Meth use changes the way the brain's neurons and neurotransmitters
like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine communicate with other
cells.

When the high the user will never get again subsides, the body and
mind begin to deteriorate.

Signs of meth use include: itching from the illusion of bugs on the
skin, insomnia for five days at a stretch, rotting teeth, excessive
talking, the "tweaking" of involuntary body movements, visual and
auditory hallucinations and paranoia.

Women, children and meth

"Most women start using meth as a weight-loss product," Duncan
said.

But users quickly become so addicted they do not realize what is
happening to their bodies -- even though the body expels meth in
about three days through urination.

Doctors used to say withdrawal took 12 to 18 months, but now note
that withdrawal might take 10 years or longer for someone being
treated for bi-polar disorder.

"It depends on the individual. One thing about addiction, the desire
is always there," Duncan said.

Babies pay the price for meth-addicted parents.

"One baby was born in Payson with legs backwards and some internal
organs on the outside," Ramona Cameron, the family group decision
making specialist and board member of the GCMC, said.

"It took a special set of foster parents to care for the child," she
added.

Cameron cited a case in Globe where "the mother's brain was so fried
with meth" although she had not taken it the day she gave birth, that
she did not know what to feed her baby. A nurse caught her trying to
feed mashed potatoes and cranberries to her newborn.

Children exposed in utero generally develop serious problems by the
age of two and by the time they enter school often develop attention
deficits and other problems that don't respond to the standard
treatments for those problems.

Meth also heightens sexual appetites, which often results in the
sexual molestation of babies and children by addicts, Cameron said.

"Ninety-five percent of Child Protective Services removals in Payson
in 2007 were meth-related," she added.

When the government removes a child from the home, the parent only
has one year to stop the drug use and get his or her life back on
track, she said.

Addicts can only hope for an understanding attorney and a sympathetic
judge, who might grant extra time for recovery.

ACCCHS and many private insurance policies do not pay for
substance-abuse recovery programs.

Fortunately, the Partnership for a Drug Free America has found that
meth use in teens and adults is decreasing. PDFA attributes this to
law enforcement and prevention programs, according to one slide at
the workshop.

Of the 30 people in attendance, half indicated they know someone
who's using meth.

"Any chance you get to talk to a legislator about treatment and
prevention dollars, talk, because the dollars in Arizona are drying
up," Duncan said.