METH USERS ARE FINDING WAYS AROUND NEW LAWS, FORUM TOLD

HIGH RIDGE -- Despite new laws limiting access to a key ingredient in
methamphetamine, the drug remains a serious problem in Jefferson
County, speakers at a forum on meth abuse said this week.

A large part of the problem is that methamphetamine is so extremely
addictive, they said.

"I have never in my life met a social methamphetamine user -- never,"
said Mark Wiggins, manager of Comtrea's Athena Center, a residential
treatment center at De Soto for drug and alcohol abusers.

Instead, Wiggins said, meth is so powerful that users can become
addicted from the first time they try it. Then nothing else matters
to them but using meth again, he said.

He was part of a panel of experts on meth at Wednesday's forum, which
was sponsored by the Jefferson County Methamphetamine Action
Coalition at the High Ridge Fire Department headquarters.

The coalition is a new group of county agencies that are pooling
information to find the best ways to combat meth in the county.

Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Higginbotham, commander of the Jefferson County
drug task force, says recent state and federal laws limiting the
amounts of pseudoephedrine that people may buy at one time made it
much more difficult for meth cooks to operate in the county.

Pseudoephedrine, legally used to treat colds and allergies, is a key
ingredient in meth.

Even so, Higginbotham said, it remains difficult to track meth cooks
who go from drugstore to drugstore to buy the total numbers of cold
tablets they need to make meth.

"We need a real-time tracking system" to follow those meth cooks, he said.

He said the laws might need to be strengthened to require pharmacies
to share information about who's buying pseudoephedrine each day.

Higginbotham added that Jefferson County was experiencing an increase
in imported meth since restrictions had been imposed last year on
pseudoephedrine purchases locally. Much of the imported meth is an
even more powerful form of the drug that is made in Mexico, he said.

"We're still dealing with the meth labs here, and it's also being
shipped in," he said.

Jefferson County has led the state since 2003 in the number of meth
labs raided by police. Higginbotham said county authorities already
had raided more than 260 labs so far this year. They raided a total
of 260 meth labs last year.

Tricia Casey, an emergency medical services worker with the Rock
Township Ambulance District, told the forum that she was most
disturbed on her calls to meth labs by the lack of concern meth cooks
and users often had, even for their own children who might be in the next room.

"With the meth users, it seems like they just don't care," Casey
said. "We've found children taking care of themselves, basically."

More than half of all children placed in foster care in Jefferson
County are put there because of drug abuse in their families, said Ed
Tasch of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in the St.
Louis area.

"We've got to be looking at this problem in terms of long-term
solutions and not just fixing things when they break," Tasch told the forum.

He said his agency was conducting several school-based programs to
try to stem drug and alcohol problems before they start. The council
starts at the elementary school level with programs on how to make
friends, handle conflicts, set life goals and resolve disputes, he
said. "These are skills that can be taught to prevent problems
later," Tasch said.

He added, "You've got to address why people are involved in this
entire drug culture in the first place."

He noted that what may start as recreational or social use of alcohol
or marijuana can lead to abuse of meth or other drugs later. Early
education can be key to preventing those problems, he said.