PREPARE NOW TO FIGHT USE OF CRYSTAL METH

Substance abuse of any kind can be devastating to families and those
who find themselves lost in the cycle of addiction.

It can also be devastating to local communities. Financially, law
enforcement and health agencies often find themselves spinning their
wheels fighting a war that seems to have no end in sight.

Enter crystal meth.

Also known as crank, speed, ice or simply meth, the illegal use of
methamphetamines is reaching epidemic proportions nationally,
according to many studies.

The drug, first widely introduced in the 1950s and 1960s as a way to
help people who needed to work long hours stay awake, re-emerged in
the late 1980s and is taking roots in small communities and big
cities everywhere.

So far, south Louisiana has seen very little of the devastating
results of widespread meth use. But, there is little doubt that it's coming.

Very popular north of Alexandria, the drug is filtering its way here
as dealers use our popular east-west corridors to transport it, and
often stop along the way to introduce it to a new batch of users.

St. Landry Parish has a strong history of fighting drug use.
Narcotics divisions in the Sheriff's Office, state police and local
police departments are generally busy with the array of drugs already
popular in use here now - marijuana, crack, cocaine and various illegal pills.

The time is now to prepare for meth's inevitable introduction. That
means money, manpower, training and education.

Other communities such as Crow Wing County, Minn., find themselves
having to shift budget priorities to fight the growing epidemic.

Everything from cleaning up toxic waste from homemade meth labs and
fighting meth-lab fires to expensive health care for recovering
addicts and foster care for children of meth-addicted parents is
taking its toll.

Other states have begun anti-meth campaigns and funneled money to
them already. In most cases, it was done as a reactive reflex to a
problem that simply could not be ignored.

Meanwhile, President Bush's administration has actually cut money
used by small communities to fight meth. That is a move in the wrong direction.

Methamphetamine use takes a significant toll on the human body. Being
awake for several days at a time with very little urge to eat, meth
users find themselves malnourished, delirious, sometimes violent and
almost always highly addicted.

The chemicals that go into the drug are easily found, which is one
reason more people are turning to it over other popular drugs that
have to be grown, rather than made. Efforts in Louisiana this past
legislative session to limit access to some of the drug's ingredients
is definitely a step in the right direction.

Even more needs to be done.

A concerted effort to educate and to fight the drug must be made
before it does make its way to our communities on a larger scale.
Let's not find ourselves in the same reactionary position as other
communities. With all the other problems we have here, this is one we
certainly do not need to add.

Prevention, they say, is the best medicine. And that is the case here.

Parents should talk to their children - teens are particularly
vulnerable to the drug's effects - specifically about crystal meth.
The courts must have an absolute zero tolerance policy. This is not a
drug people just get over, so money must be funneled into treatment
programs or it will simply continue to grow.

And officials must get on board, listen to their brethren in North
Louisiana and throughout the nation's Midwest where the fight has
been lingering for years, and be ready. This community simply cannot
afford anything less.