MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES FUELING METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE

Meth Is The Drug Of Choice To Self-Medicate Mental Illness, Officials Say

The fight against methamphetamine in Marion County will require a
multi-pronged attack, according to Rod Calkins director of the Marion
County Health Department, because it is an all-out battle that
effects every aspect of local government.

"Meth is a huge problem in our communities, there is no denying
it," he said. "It challenges our public safety, our law enforcement,
and our infrastructure -- it is also a huge medical issue."

It's a huge problem, he said, because even as progress is made in
restricting access to the raw materials to make meth, little is done
to create new treatment facilities and programs for Marion County
residents addicted to the drug.

"What we know from addictions literature is that meth is a bit
different and a bit the same," he explained. "What we've found with
substance abuse is that substance abuse is something like a balloon
in that if you push in on one side it tends to pop out on the other
side. As a number of the panel members have said this morning, you
don't arrest yourself out of that problem. What you need to do is
find some way of taking the air out of the balloon. And the way you
do that is prevention and treatment."

Calkins and other Marion County officials discussed the challenges of
conquering methamphetamine abuse with leaders from numerous cities
earlier this month. Marion County Sheriff Raul Ramirez told the city
officials he estimates more than 85 percent of inmates at the county
jail were there on charges involving meth.

Unfortunately, Calkins said, many addicts who would seek treatment
are unable to because they lack medical coverage and few public
programs exist. So as users' lives spiral into addiction they suffer
from poverty and often turn to crime to fuel their habit.

"That's a huge expense that our community is bearing," he said.

The health issue is not just an issue of bodily health, either,
Calkins said. Meth use can lead to psychiatric problems including
paranoia and psychosis, throwing addicts into yet another category of
marginalization and making their potential for incarceration even more likely.

"In and of itself meth can produce those problems even in folks who
do not have those problems to begin with," he said.

And for people with undiagnosed mental illness, methamphetamine is
the drug of choice for self-medication Ramirez said. It is the
cheapest drug to obtain, readily available and drug dealers don't
require a prescription like pharmacies.

"Thirty to 40 percent of the population of your jail have some sort
of mental illness and out of that population we're seeing an increase
of their medicating with meth since they don't have access to (legal)
medication," Ramirez said.

The penal system has become a revolving door for people struggling
with mental illness and addiction, he added. According to a study of
mentally ill inmates at the Marion County Jail, mentally ill people
were incarcerated 25 percent longer and 23 percent more often than
inmates in comparison group; they committed 17 percent more crimes;
and a higher number of mentally ill offenders than comparison inmates
committed multiple crimes.

The solution for this mental health crisis calls for a multi-pronged
attack, panelists agreed.

"We're moving forward, we're developing strategies, but we still have
a long way to go," Ramirez said. "We have 400 to 500 slots for drug
treatment, both residential and in-custody, those slots are not
enough slots in this county when you think of the need in the
thousands. Short of treatment (drug users) will continue down that
path of addiction."

They'll continue down that path because they have little choice,
Calkins said. Recent changes to the Oregon Health Plan and Social
Security have excluded many Oregonians from treatment programs, Calkins said.

"Those cuts have not been restored," Calkins said. "What we need to
be pushing for is to restore that money and push for innovative
programs like the rest of the panel has been talking about. Some of
the programs that have been started here have been incredibly
innovative and we need support both locally and at the legislature
for more of those kinds of programs."

The Marion County Public Safety Coordinating Council has chosen to
make the support of existing programs and introduction of new
programs a priority.

According to their investigations 70 to 80 percent of juvenile and
adult offenders should receive mandatory alcohol and drug treatment.
Furthermore, drug treatment programs must be flexible enough to deal
with the unique addiction characteristics of several drugs.

"Almost no one comes in with a single drug addiction," Calkins
explained. "Poly substance abuse is the norm. We need to add
resources to our current system, it's not a matter of shifting from
one drug treatment to another" we need them all. Treatment works.
Treatment for meth addiction works."

The Marion County Public Safety Coordinating Council presented a $14
million basic law enforcement four-year levy in 2002 to address many
of the issues still being discussed, but it failed at the polls by a
margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.

MCPSCC decided to focus on research and the dissemination of
information to the public after the failure, and plans for another
broad levy are not currently in place, according to Marion County
Commissioner Patti Milne.

Residents of Marion County can still light a fire under their
representatives Fred Girod, Vic Gilliam and Roger Byer, according to
Patti Milne, by writing or calling them a stressing the importance of
funding for public safety and treatment for addictions.