CRYSTAL METH FORCES US TO FACE UGLY REALITIES

Meth in middle school. Meth in the womb. Meth as father-daughter time.

The Arizona Republic series "Shattered by Glass: Children and Meth,"
shows how the drug has insinuated itself into what should be safe
spaces. Home. School. How it invades sacred places, like a child's
relationship with parents.

It can be overwhelming to read of a 12-year-old girl asking her dad
to share his meth. It goes beyond chilling to enter the world of a
14-year-old girl who scrawled her anger into a Betty Boop diary,
decided "life sucks" and turned her mother in for cooking meth.

The clinical descriptions of what this drug can do to mind and body
are harrowing. The seizure Saturday of 70 pounds of meth by the
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office demonstrates that demand is high
despite the risk.

Whether it's Mom in the kitchen or some Mexican cartel, the supply
will be there.

Our challenge, as a community, is much like the challenge that Jeff
Taylor of the Phoenix Rescue Mission said meth addicts face in
rehabilitation: "How do you react to the world without getting
loaded? How do you react to the jerk of a boss? How do you react to
the wife that leaves you? How do you react to the father that dies?

You have to start to face life's difficulties."

How do you react when schoolkids take meth to class? How do you react
to the fact that more than half of the kids in juvenile detention
have a history of meth use? How do you react when 40 percent of
dependency petitions in Pima County last year involved parents on
meth? How do you react when 48 babies born at Phoenix Children's
Hospital last year had meth in their systems?

You have to start to face it.

You have to get beyond the denial to recognize this drug effects
people in every income bracket, every race, all ages.

It is, as one 15-year-old ex-user told The Republic's Judi Villa, "the devil."

It isn't somebody else's problem. The Partnership for a Drug-Free
America reports that nearly one in five children age 12 to 17 has
been offered meth.

You have to get beyond the paralyzing shock, the inertia of
helplessness, to face this difficulty.

It's real, and it's everybody's problem.

Parents need to talk to their kids about the dangers.

Schools need to be alert and involved, too, because sometimes the
parents are the problem.

A bill to inject needed cash into treatment, interdiction and
education has been offered by state Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa, and
is moving through the Legislature. It should pass.

Unfortunately, the Legislature has not yet followed Attorney General
Terry Goddard's suggestion to toughen up the state law regarding the
sale of over-the-counter drugs that can be cooked into meth. Some say
a federal law made that unnecessary, but codifying restrictions in
state law wouldn't hurt. Increasing numbers of Arizona cities are doing so.

Efforts are under way to create an Arizona version of a gritty
anti-meth media campaign that has shown success in Montana. Members
of Goddard's and Gov. Janet Napolitano's staffs recently flew to
Montana to check it out.

These efforts are important for dealing with a drug that has a cruel
and frightening reach.

But just like the drug supplier who is always on the lookout for new
ways to peddle his poison, we all have to continue to look for ways
to keep our communities safe.

Meth use is a significant public health threat and efforts to counter
it should begin at home and reach the highest levels of government.