SWAIN'S DRUG PROBLEM WORRIES OFFICIALS

The beautiful mountain scenery that covers Swain County hides an ugly
truth -- the area is combating a major drug problem, and officials
aren't quite sure how to stop it.

Sheriff Curtis Cochran first expressed his concern to county
commissioners in January when he finished compiling his department's
2007 statistics. His findings: a startling one in three arrests made
last year were for drug charges.

"Any time a third of your total arrests are for one item, that's
high," Cochran said.

The major culprit is methamphetamine. The stimulant has been a problem
in Swain and many areas of Western North Carolina for several years.
Thanks in part to legislation that put medicines in the meth
manufacturing process behind the counters at drug and grocery stores,
only one meth lab was busted in the county in 2007. Manufacturing of
the drug is way down, but possession and use aren't, Cochran said.

In comparison, neighboring Jackson County reported 19 percent of all
arrests were drug-related. In Macon County, that number was 17 percent.

Cochran doesn't know why the percentage of drug arrests in Swain is
higher than in surrounding counties. He can surmise, however, why
methamphetamine is the number one drug of choice for abusers here. For
one, it's incredibly addictive.

"If you try it one time, you might be able to get off of it. If you
try it twice, you're done," said Cochran. The sheriff added that a
recent study he saw put the recovery rate for meth addicts at a mere 4
percent.

"It's such an addictive drug that people get on it and they just can't
get off. It just takes control of their body, their mind," he said.

And meth doesn't discriminate. Cochran has seen users as young as 13,
and of all ages, races, sexes, religions, and education levels.

The effects are far-reaching and extend far past the user. Meth leads
to the breakdown of families. Domestic violence is a side effect of
the drug, and perhaps the worst toll is on children.

"We see parents and kids all the time. Kids are neglected, kids are
abused -- they really suffer a detrimental effect from any kind of
drug," Cochran said. "That's the future of Swain County. We're eroding
our foundation, and if it erodes enough it's going to crumble."

Cochran also said the drug is directly linked to breaking and
enterings and larcenies.

"These people will steal anything to get a fix," he said. "What's to
say that somebody wanting a fix won't come in and kill you to take
what he needs to get that fix?"

The sheriff admits he's stumped as to what the solution is. With only
two officers on the county roads at any given time, Cochran doesn't
have the manpower he needs to fight the problem. But it's more than
that, he says.

"Incarcerating them and keeping them in for 70 to 80 months and
turning them back on the street is not the answer. There's going to
have to be treatment and education. A lot of these people probably are
not going to have a high school diploma -- they need some job skills,"
Cochran said.

Recovery

Help for recovering addicts in Swain County is limited. Smoky Mountain
Center for Mental Health, which oversees mental health and substance
abuse care in the western counties, offers addiction treatment
programs in Jackson and Haywood counties, but not in Swain.

Smoky Mountain Center uses a therapy known as matrix, which combines
structured group meetings three times a week with community-oriented
recovery groups, like Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous.

Even a program one county over can be too far for some residents to
travel, explained Rhonda Cox, a Smoky Mountain administrator in charge
of community-based clinicians in the western counties.

"Poverty (in Swain) is really significant. Families don't have a lot
of means for transportation, so alternatives even one county over are
a real barrier," Cox said.

Cox said Swain has historically lacked enough adult service providers
to meet the needs of addicts. Medicaid service definitions require
someone with a special certification in substance abuse to treat these
individuals, Cox said, and "that's very, very limited in our western
counties."

The financial cost of starting a substance abuse treatment program is
another hindrance in the county.

"These are expensive programs to get up and going. The no show rate is
really high initially, and when you have providers working and getting
paid only when someone comes in the office ... it's balancing those
out," Cox said.

It's not that Smoky Mental Health doesn't want to help.

"They really do have a high level of needs. We're willing and flexible
in our funding, and I think people are trying to get their staff
trained, but it's not a quick fix," said Cox.

Recently, Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) secured $70,000 for the county
through a federal omnibus appropriations bill that will target the
drug problem.

"The fight against methamphetamine is critically important to the
safety of our families and our communities. We need to be doing
everything in our power on the local, state and federal level to stop
the use and sale of this drug. This funding will allow the Swain
County Sheriff's Office to invest in training, equipment, and other
resources they need to fight meth," Shuler said.

Though Cochran doesn't yet know what he'll do with the federal money,
he vows to keep confronting the problem head on.

"If we close our eyes or bury our head in the sand and say we don't
have a problem, it's not going to go away. We do have a problem. We've
got to take whatever steps we can locally, and hopefully we can get
more help nationally to combat these problems," Cochran said.

The younger set

Prescription drug abuse is on the rise with the younger population in
Swain County, says Sheriff Curtis Cochran said.

"Morphine is becoming very common, and of course there's oxycontin,
vicodin, and anything that's got a tranquilizing effect," he said.

The abuse of prescription medications is more common with teens
because they're easily obtainable -- often in the medicine cabinets of
parents or grandparents.

The most common reason Cochran hears for abuse of prescription drugs
is that kids are looking for something to do.

"Probably 99 percent of them say there is just nothing to do here. But
there is -- we don't have the things that Asheville or Chicago's got,
but we do have things for kids to do and we encourage them to get
involved," Cochran said.

Though Cochran says abusers "have a better chance of recovering from
prescription meds -- they don't get into the core of the person like
meth does," the sheriff warns they can still be deadly.

Cochran received a report two months ago about a "pill party" where
every person in attendance brought five different prescription
medications and threw them in a big barrel to mix them up.

"That was their high for the night," Cochran said. "You mix some of
those things, and you've got a deadly concoction -- especially with
alcohol."