ABOUT 250 MARCH AGAINST METH

Event Seeks to Raise Awareness About the Evils of The
Drug.

About 250 people -- many of them entire families -- gathered Saturday
in Fresno's Tower District for a march and rally against methamphetamine.

The highly addictive drug was named recently the No. 1 drug problem
in a survey of sheriffs in 48% of counties polled nationwide.

"I like to call it the silent killer," the Rev. Bruce Hood, pastor of
Feed My Sheep Ministries in Fresno, told reporters as he waited for
the march to start. "It's the silent killer because, unlike gang
members with guns who go 'bang, bang,' you don't hear any 'bang,
bangs' when this drug is destroying lives and communities."

The event, timed to observe the National Red Ribbon Week drug
prevention campaign, saw the marchers start out from the parking lot
of the Department of Motor Vehicles at Weber and Olive avenues and
finish one mile away at the parking lot of Roger Rocka's Theatre at
Olive and Wishon avenues with a rally featuring music, speakers,
information booths and food stands.

Sponsored by Feed My Sheep Ministries, the Community Partners for
Recovery and the Fresno Police Department's Southwest and Central
Policing Districts, the event was similar to the one the
organizations staged last year against violence.

Escorted by Fresno police, including officers on bicycles, the
marchers included people in wheelchairs, babies in strollers and
about a dozen riders from the Soldiers for Jesus motorcycle club.

The participants included a 55-year-old woman, her husband, her adult
daughter, her daughter's husband and the couple's four young children.

"All of us, except my grandchildren, thank God, are recovering drug
addicts," said Diane, who would not give her last name because she
belongs to a program that offers anonymity to its members.

The woman said she has been drug-free for more than 20 years, but she
paid a heavy price while she was involved in the drug scene.

"Everything in my life turned to garbage," she said. "My marriage
broke up. My children ran away. I lost my job."

And to support her habit, she said, she turned to selling drugs,
which cost her six years in state prison when she was caught.

The Rev. Jim Franklin, pastor of Cornerstone Church, said the goal of
Saturday's event was to bring more community awareness to the
far-reaching ill and violent effects linked to the use of methamphetamine.

"The drug has no boundaries," he said. "It may be called the poor
man's cocaine because it is cheaper to buy than cocaine, but it's not
just the poor who are getting hooked to it."

"If something like this can get one person out of the drug scene, we
have done our job," said Gilbert Lopez, 50, who works at the Fresno
Rescue Mission. "That's one life we have saved."