DRUG COURT KEY PART OF STATE PLAN TO TREAT METH ADDICTS

Governor's office hopes to trim costs of incarcerations

Nashville's highly acclaimed felony Drug Court may find itself facing a
different sort of addict: the methamphetamine user.

Crack is still the drug of choice for 95% of the residents at the Davidson
County Drug Court but, under a $1.7 million plan proposed by Gov. Phil
Bredesen, meth users from around the state will be taken for treatment in
Nashville.

Methamphetamine poses a new challenge for the Drug Court, which is the only
self-operated residential drug court in the U.S., and has been recognized
by the Bush administration as a national model.

Because the program has been so successful - about 75% of graduates are not
convicted of another crime within five years - the governor's office is
hoping it can play a pivotal role in helping to stop the growing impact of
methamphetamine in Tennessee.

The hope is to save the money it costs to incarcerate addicts in jails and
prisons, said Will Pinkston, an aide to Bredesen.

"The economics are pretty simple, but aside from saving money, it's the
right thing to do."

Under the plan, only nonviolent addicts will be allowed into the program,
he said.

Drug Court officials recognize that treating methamphetamine addicts is a
daunting challenge. Many experts have cited methamphetamine as being more
addictive than cocaine.

The chemicals used to make methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant, are
highly toxic and alter the brain chemistry differently than other drugs,
said John Averitt, a scientific consultant to the Governor's Task Force on
Methamphetamine.

"It's going to take probably six months for the methamphetamine addicts to
kind of clear their mind to be able to think properly," Averitt said; only
then can they begin to work on the addiction problem.

Still, Criminal Court Judge Seth Norman, who founded and now presides over
Metro's felony Drug Court program, can recall a time when people said his
court couldn't help people addicted to crack, a refined form of cocaine.

"You never know till you try."

Scott Kimmerly knows firsthand what the drug can do to a user's mind.

He remembers being put in isolation in Metro Jail and hallucinating after
being awake for seven days on a meth high.

"I was lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling and just singing," he said.

He was later taken to a psychiatric hospital.

Kimmerly, 27, entered Drug Court late last year after being convicted of
aggravated burglary and is among only a handful of methamphetamine users in
Metro's residential program, located in Bordeaux.

The governor's plan calls for taking in 30 methamphetamine users from
around the state and treating them for about two years.

New beds will be added to the 100-bed facility so that none will be taken
away from addicts in Davidson County who are awaiting treatment, the judge
said.

The plan still needs the approval of the legislature to become reality this
summer.

But even supporters are under no illusions that the pilot program alone
will make a dent in Tennessee's enormous demand for methamphetamine
addiction treatment, said Sam MacMaster, an associate professor at the
University of Tennessee College of Social Work.

"We closed 1,500 meth labs last year; we've added 30 beds. In some ways,
that's good. It's a step in the right direction. But so much more needs to
occur."

The hope is that the program might someday grow into a blueprint for other
places.

"Nashville has been at the forefront of drug treatment around the country,"
said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control
Policy.

He credited Norman for creating a solid program.

So did another Drug Court resident, who is working to kick his habit after
34 years of using methamphetamine and other drugs.

"Judge Norman saved my life," Clyde Gray said. "If anybody can get a-hold
of this problem, it's Judge Norman."