Series: Meth: Shattering Lives In Northern Nevada

A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that
methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold.

1. EDUCATION 2. TREATMENT 3.PREVENTION

When a 12-year-old girl was caught by undercover detectives selling
methamphetamine in downtown Reno in 2004, police realized that the
drug had spread too far in their community.

"You don't just one day jump into drug dealing and know how to do it
like she did on the first time," said Sgt. Chuck Kendricks, who
headed the regional Street Enforcment Team before his retirement last year.

Now politicians are seeking a way to fight the drug that is crowding
jails, destroying families and consuming lives. They are attending
coalition summits, sending media releases about their support of
anti-meth laws and vowing to seek funds to help the battle.

But many experts say the answer to the meth problem does not lie in
more cops or tighter borders.

Capt. Scott Jackson of the Nevada Highway Patrol, a former leader of
a narcotics task force covering Douglas and Lyon counties and Carson
City, says what's needed is a "triage approach."

"Education, treatment and prevention," said Jackson, who is working
to build a highway interdiction team in Northern Nevada. "That's the
only chance we have. A high percentage of the population seems to
have an appetite for methamphetamine. The demand is driving supply,
and both are overwhelming."

Education Comes First

Instead of chasing small-time drug dealers, Jackson wants to decrease
the demand for meth.

Nevada Attorney General George Chanos, who sponsored a summit in May
for state leaders and special interest groups to discuss the meth
issue, agrees a three-prong attack against methamphetamine should
begin with education.

"As long as you have a demand, you will have a supply," Chanos said.
"We need to reduce demand. We need to educate high school students
about the ravaging effects. We need to educate parents about the
health risks, so that as an overall community, we can help."

The Partnership Carson City, an anti-meth coalition formed by
community leaders about a year ago, emphasizes education to different groups.

"We're trying to blanket the entire the community," said participant
Sarah Hill. "It needs to be at all levels. Information you give to a
group of students is different than what you give to a bunch of
Kiwanis members."

Hill tailors presentations for young people, business owners,
neighbors and teachers because each needs to look for different
things. The presenters tell young people not to use meth because it
destroys their teeth, face and body. Business owners learn how to
identify possible addicts in their work force.

Kevin Quint, executive director of Join Together Northern Nevada,
said the public view is clouded by stereotypes.

"We picture the skinny, pock-mark-faced, scraggly haired, dirty
tweaker," said Quint, who also heads the Meth Community Response
Alliance based in Reno. "That describes some users, but there are at
least 500 middle school kids who have tried the drug in Washoe
County. I'm pretty sure that most 12-year-olds who have tried meth
don't fit that tweaker model."

Funding For Treatment Stagnant

The Meth Community Response Alliance, which includes police,
treatment, school and social service workers, tries to educate the community.

"The community doesn't realize there's a problem because it doesn't
understand it," Quint said.

Some addicts need help getting into treatment facilities, and some
facilities need more funding for inpatient programs instead of
typical drop-in, outpatient care.

Federal funding has not kept pace with Nevada's growing population,
and treatment providers say they will have to cut program and
staffing, creating longer waiting lists. State funding has stayed at
$3 million per year since 1999.

Counselors at Bristlecone Family resources, the only facility in
Washoe County that provides detoxification, residential treatment and
outpatient counseling, say meth addicts need between three to six
months to recover brain, cognitive and other functions impaired by
drugs. It costs just under $200 a day for residential treatment at
Bristlecone, but many clients qualify for its sliding fee rate of
$45. On average, Bristlecone collects $3 a day from each client.

Because it receives state and federal funds, Bristlecone cannot turn
away indigents. They have 50 to 60 people a day on their waiting lists.

"We have a really severe problem here in Reno because of the 24-hour
town and people working graveyard shifts," said Bristlecone counselor
Lindsay Holland. "It's sad to see us in the community with so few
resources to help everyone.

"If people think this problem is going away, it's not," she said.

"We need to stay up and running to provide people at least with
skills so they can stay clean."

No. 1 Issue For Officers

Dorothy North, chief executive officer at Vitality Center -- a
treatment center for adults in Elko as well as a new juvenile program
in Sun Valley -- said meth is more potent now than 10 years ago.
People get addicted to it faster, she said.

And while treatment providers view alcoholism and substance abuse as
a disease, many in the public see it as a choice -- and consequently
view it as "happening somewhere else ... in someone else's school and
family and neighborhood," she said. "That's just not true."

Congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons said
that meth prevention and treatment needs to be a priority in Nevada.

"The entire community feels the impact of meth, and when that
happens, constituents drive the legislative process," he said. "But
we have to get over that tug of war with law enforcement and
treatment, because they're both needed.

"The state must increase its funding for interdiction and treatment,"
he said. "If we don't attack this issue now, the availability of
resources will only get worse."

Gibbons said he supports laws that increase funding toward anit-meth
initiatives, but without sitting down with state officials and going
over the budget, he was unable to say how much was needed and where
funding would come from.

Gibbons said he has met with law-enforcement officials in every
corner of the state and the No. 1 issue they report is "the
significant meth abuse that is surging throughout Nevada."

Gibbons said the number of adolescents being admitted into treatment
for meth abuse is evidence that meth's problem is systematic. Nevada
teens between the age of 12 and 17 accounted for 5.4 percent of the
total meth addicts admitted into state-funded treatment programs in
1996. But last year they accounted for 10.5 percent -- a 94 percent
increase, a Gazette-Journal analysis of federal statistics found.

"When it's that broad and hits our children and threatens our
community as a whole, we have to address it on all levels: education,
trafficking, abuse," Gibbons said. "This is an epidemic we have to
eliminate and the only way to do it is attack it on all fronts."

Delays In Treatment

Drug Court officials say their program will help keep 80 percent of
its addicts sober, but growing caseloads and lack of area services
can cause delays in getting defendants treatment.

"It doesn't make sense to have people taking up jail space for weeks
at a time waiting for a treatment bed," said Assemblywoman Sheila
Leslie, also the coordinator of the county's specialty courts, which
includes drug court.

"Research tells us that when people are ready to admit they have a
drug problem, getting them immediately into treatment increases the
success rate dramatically," she said. "Instead, our system has long
waiting lists and is very discouraging.

"We lose a lot of people who find it easier to go back on the streets
and commit crimes to support their drug habit than trying to get into
a treatment system that pushes them away due to a lack of funding," she said.

Taxpayers then pick up the tab for emergency room and jail visits, Leslie said.

Those who need rehab, should be able to get time in rehab, Chanos said.

"Some people who are casual users of methamphetamine need drug court
and rehabilitation," he said. "Drug court, rehab and counseling. They
do not necessarily need to go to prison for a long time."

Traffickers who smuggle pounds of the drug across the border from
Mexico into Nevada and California need harsher penalties, Chanos said.

"I believe we need to send a signal that people who engage in that
type of activity will pay a very high price for doing so in Nevada,"
Chanos said.

'A Community Problem'

Another piece of the battle is public awareness of the drug, officials said.

"I believe the public at large is still behind the curve and doesn't
understand the magnitude of the problem," Chanos said.

Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong, whose daughter Kendra Furlong was
arrested on meth possession charges in 2003, said the community
coalition began when the city decided to acknowledge the widespread
drug problem.

"Our community admitted we had a problem and we took charge of it,"
Furlong said. "Meth is not a law-enforcement problem. Meth is a
community problem. It devastates communities and it consumes every
resource we have."