SCHOOLS NOT IMMUNE TO METH

Police Arrest Five Students Linked To McNary's Largest Drug Seizure Ever.

Breaking down a fist-sized chunk of methamphetamine like an onion, the
wanna-be drug peddlers separated the "crank" into smaller amounts for
packaging.

Then, police say, they sealed it in nine plastic bags.

Supplies of the highly addictive, illegal stimulant were headed for a
potentially lucrative drug market: McNary High School.

Easy to conceal in pants pockets and jackets, the blackmarket "bindles"
carried a total street value estimated at $600 to $800.

The meth-trafficking scheme unraveled this week. Acting on a tip, Officer
Daniel Kelley, McNary's school resource officer, confiscated the drugs from
two students, ages 15 and 17, after they were pulled from their classes.

Police called it the largest quantity of a controlled substance ever
recovered at the Keizer school.

The investigation led to two other 15-year-olds who were linked to the
original acquisition of the drugs. All four were arrested Tuesday. A fifth
student, 16, was arrested Friday in connection with the case.

Police don't know if any suspects engaged in previous meth trafficking at
the 1,770-student high school.

"Every indication we have from talking to them is, this was the first
time," said Keizer police Sgt. Jeff Kuhns. "Of course, we have no way to
substantiate that."

Until this week, Salem-Keizer schools seemed immune to the methamphetamine
epidemic that has spread waves of crime, addiction and misery across Marion
County.

Now, some McNary parents and students wonder what's going on.

"When you find out it's in your school, it almost makes you scared,"
freshman Emilie Giblin, 15, said Friday afternoon when her mom picked her
up at the Keizer school.

Michelle Giblin said it was jarring to hear about the drug being found
inside her daughter's school. "With that comes stealing and all other kinds
of crimes," she said.

Asked if McNary has a serious meth problem, Principal John Bohlander didn't
have an answer.

"Who knows? Basically, we're a microcosm of society. We don't perceive it
as being a major problem, but we're not naive either. I'm sure that
students everywhere are exposed, just by virtue of family associations and
so forth."

Drug-prevention specialists are concerned that meth's popularity among
adults is spilling into the juvenile population. In that respect, they say,
the McNary case sounded a warning call about a growing threat.

"It's sort of a trickle-down effect," said Barbara Cimaglio, manager of
community prevention programs for the state Department of Human Services.
"We're starting to see more younger people involved with it because it is
so prevalent among adults. Obviously, that's a big concern."

Carla Moyer, alcohol and drug prevention specialist for Salem-Keizer
schools, said she was taken aback by the McNary incident.

"It was a considerable amount of methamphetamine to find in a school
setting," she said. "It certainly was alarming."

Dangerous Appeal

Cheap and plentiful, meth is the dominant street drug in Marion County, far
surpassing cocaine and heroin. Sold in pill, powder, chunk or liquid form,
meth can be swallowed, snorted, smoked or injected.

"You can put it in coffee," said Lt. Dan Cary of the Marion Area Gang and
Narcotics Enforcement Team. "It gives a higher high, a longer lasting high,
than cocaine."

Adding to its appeal, meth is easy to make with ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine, found in common cold and flu medicines, plus other
ingredients such as battery acid, gasoline, drain cleaner, lye, sulfuric
acid and red phosphorous.

"You can make this stuff in your bathroom," Cary said. "It doesn't take a
rocket scientist to make it."

Meth production is booming. In Marion County, MAGNET agents found a record
50 meth labs and dump sites in 2002, up from 27 in 2001.

Three Oregon counties -- Marion, Jackson and Deschutes -- are designated by
the federal government as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas. That makes
them eligible for extra federal money to fight the meth trade.

But drug cops admit they can't keep pace with relentless meth production
and trafficking. To their frustration, dealers and addicts who steal to
support their habits keep cycling through clogged courts and jails. Back on
the streets, they pick up where they left off.

"I don't think we're making a lot of progress, primarily because there's no
place to put these people," Cary said.

All four youths arrested Tuesday were taken to the Marion County Juvenile
Department intake facility. They later went home under terms of conditional
release agreements, officials said. The Statesman Journal is not naming
them because they are juveniles.

In court appearances, two of the four admitted guilt on charges of
delivering drugs to a minor, said Larry Oglesby, director of the Marion
County Juvenile Department. Two others have not yet entered pleas to drug
charges.

A fifth youth, arrested Friday in connection with the case, is scheduled to
make his initial court appearance Monday. He faces a drug possession charge.

Of the five teen-age boys, only the latest arrestee has a juvenile record,
Oglesby said. He is on probation for charges of theft, criminal mischief
and possession of alcohol.

Bust Shakes Up School

Student and parental reaction to the case reflected anger, concern and fear.

"I think it kind of brings down school morale when that kind of crap
happens," said Katie Sanders, 15, a McNary sophomore.

Linda Sanders, Katie's mother, said she was concerned but also encouraged
that students came forward to tell police about the trafficking scheme.

"We don't want McNary to be known as a school where it's easy to get
drugs," Sanders said while picking up Katie at the school Friday afternoon.
"There's a lot of good kids here, like the students who reported it."

Kristina Low, 15, a McNary freshman, said the detection of meth on school
grounds was frightening. "It makes me feel like I have less pride in my
school, and it makes me feel unsafe," she said.

Surveys indicate that methamphetamine use is rare among Salem-Keizer high
school students. Alcohol and marijuana easily rank as the most frequently
used illegal substances.

"Meth does not register very high on the scale," said Moyer, the district's
prevention specialist. "What we believe is, youth who really get into
methamphetamine drop out fairly quickly."

In a 2002 survey of student drug and alcohol abuse in Salem-Keizer schools,
one percent of responding 11th-grade students reported they had used
methamphetamine, "crank" or speed during the past month.

In comparison, 30 percent of the surveyed 11th-graders said they had
consumed alcohol and 16 percent reported they had smoked marijuana.

Student surveys don't truly reflect how many young people use meth, Moyer said.

"It's not that there aren't a fairly substantial number of kids using, but
they're no longer in the schools to take our survey," she said.

Heavy meth use generally makes it impossible to function at school, Moyer said.

"It's a very, very addictive drug," she said. "People will stay high for
days and then crash. Given that, attendance at school doesn't fit."

Trickling down to teens

A local surge in juvenile drug court cases involving meth-abusing young
people is another worrisome sign of the potent drug's growing appeal among
teens, prevention specialists say.

"We are seeing more and more methamphetamine cases in juvenile drug court,
and that's scary," said Cindi Astley, director of Salem-Keizer Together, a
drug prevention and awareness program.

She, too, fears the area's meth epidemic will spread into the youth drug
culture.

"Marion County is a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area because of the
massive amounts of methamphetamine that are made, bought, sold and shipped
in an out of our county," Astley said. "We have a huge problem here."

Meth education in Salem-Keizer schools doesn't start until students reach
high school.

"In elementary and middle school, we're concentrating on the gateway
drugs," Moyer said. "But in high school, it would be part of both health
classes -- Wellness 1 and Wellness 2."

New approaches are gaining momentum across the state.

In Yamhill County, for example, Sheridan High School students will start
work this month on a film designed to illustrate meth's life-destroying
power. The project, supported by a federal grant, is expected to be done by
June, said Max Margolis, youth outreach coordinator for the Oregon
Partnership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to substance abuse
prevention and treatment.

Margolis travels to schools around the state, giving presentations that
warn students about meth.

"Basically, we talk about how addictive it is, and the toll it takes on
this state," he said. "Most people don't know it, but Services to Children
and Families spends about 70 percent to 90 percent of its time working with
families devastated by methamphetamine."

In his presentations, Margolis shows students video clips of meth addicts,
also known as "tweakers." The pictures are not pretty.

Drug cops, like Cary, don't need to look at pictures. They see hardcore
tweakers all too often.

"Your teeth fall out. You start losing your hair," he said, rattling off
some of the telltale features. "If you use it long enough, you see sores on
their face and skin, where this stuff is trying to work its way out of the
system.

"It's just nasty, nasty stuff."