Copyright: 2005 The Plain Dealer
Contact: letters@plaind.com
Website: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: priority given to local letter writers
Author: Mark Gillispie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

EFFECT ON FAMILIES COSTING TAXPAYERS IN ONE OHIO COUNTY

Methamphetamine has proven expensive in Clermont County.

A drug task force in the southwest Ohio county has spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars searching for and destroying meth labs. More than 100
have been found since 2000 -- the second-highest total in the state, behind
Summit County.

And now officials want to raise taxes to help pay for methamphetamine's
most tragic consequence -- the neglect and abuse of children whose parents
make and use the highly addictive drug.

Voters will be asked to increase a children's services levy in November to
raise an additional $1.5 million a year.

The number of children in the foster care system in Clermont County has
jumped from 161 to 315 in the last four years. Anne Arbaugh, deputy
director for Clermont County Children's Protective Services, said drugs are
largely responsible for the increase, and meth is the biggest culprit.

The county is responsible for the care of 44 children removed from homes
where parents made meth. At least 10 more have been taken from parents
largely because of meth abuse.

"When you're up for days at a time, that means you're going to be sleeping
for a couple days and obviously you can't care for kids in those
circumstances," Arbaugh said.

While Clermont County -- largely a collection of rural communities and
Cincinnati suburbs -- has been aggressive combating meth, some areas of
rural southern Ohio have found only a few, if any, labs.

Scott Duff, supervisor of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and
Identification's meth lab task force, says the region is "eaten up" with labs.

"These are very rural communities," Duff said. "Law enforcement resources
are so stretched that they're barely able to answer their calls on a daily
basis."

Rural areas across the country have been especially vulnerable to meth's
allure.

The ability to make a drug can be empowering to people with limited
education and prospects. But there appear to be deeper, sociological
reasons why methamphetamine use has skyrocketed in rural communities.

"Part of the beauty of small-town America is the beauty of what they call
simple pleasures," said Dr. Alex Stalcup, a drug treatment specialist in
San Francisco. "Methamphetamine is 100-500 times more pleasurable than what
you get from those things."

Methamphetamine loves places like Felicity, a village in southern Clermont
County. Surrounded by tobacco fields and trailer parks and awash in poverty
and unemployment, Felicity has been hit hard by meth problems.

Mary Murphy wishes county narcotics detectives and local police would do
more to rid Felicity of meth. While one lab has been dismantled in her
small apartment complex, she suspects that several more are operating.

"This meth is getting a hold of a lot of communities," Murphy said. "It's
getting a hold of Felicity because there's no law enforcement. The rats are
running here because they know they can get away with it."

Felicity Police Chief Ray Hesler says there's not much he can do.

"It comes into the village, and we do the best we can with what we got,"
Hesler said. "But our budget is just like every other place -- it's next to
nothing."