COUNTY SAYS METH USE UP AMONG PEOPLE 50 AND OLDER

Effort To Combat Abuse Launched

SAN DIEGO - Clinton Earls is the new face in the fight against
methamphetamine addiction.

He's 61 years old.

"I know people my age and older doing meth," said Earls of Chula
Vista, a former heavy-equipment operator who started using the drug
in his 20s and was addicted for 40 years. His teenage son got him to go clean.

Earl spoke at a news conference called by county officials at Scripps
Mercy Hospital yesterdayto release statistics that show an increasing
number of people 50 and older are using the powerful stimulant.

"In the past five years, 1,000 meth-related deaths occurred in San
Diego County," county Supervisor Dianne Jacob said in launching the
Get Off Meth campaign, targeting friends and relatives of meth users
and encouraging them to help users seek treatment.

The number of meth-related deaths of people over 50 nearly doubled in
the same five-year period - from 22 to 41, said Dr. Michael J. Sise,
medical director, trauma services at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

The Get Off Meth campaign is a collaboration among the county Health
and Human Services Agency, the Meth Strike Force and Scripps Mercy Hospital.

Officials said the good news is that the percentage of meth-related
deaths has declined or remained steady for younger age groups.

Jean M. Shepard, director of the county Health and Human Services
Agency, said one explanation for the increase among older people is
that baby boomers - people born between 1946 and 1964 - may have a
more casual attitude about drug use.

"As they aged, they did not abandon their drug use," Shepard said.

Teens are not favoring meth these days, she said, even though it
comes in candy flavors and can be smoked. They are using marijuana
and alcohol primarily, she added.

Meth use may cause hallucinations, paranoia, stroke, liver or heart
failure and death, health officials warn.

For Earls, the struggle over meth lasted most of a lifetime.

His addiction cost him his wife, he went to prison, and his six
children constantly urged him to stop using the drug.

Finally, seven months ago, Earls' 17-year-old son, a Hilltop High
honor student, got his father to seek treatment.

"I became sick and tired of the revolving door my life had become,"
Earls said "My son is my rock; I want to stay straight for him."