WARNING: METH ADDICTION HAPPENS HERE IN OUR VALLEY

A Presentation in Milton-Freewater Opened the Eyes of Many Teen-Agers
- It Could Also Save Their Lives.

Methamphetamine addiction - it's something that happens in other
places to other people. Right?

That's what we would like to believe, but it's not even close to
reality. The fact is that meth addiction is becoming an epidemic,
particularly in rural communities in the Pacific Northwest.

And that's not something we in the Walla Walla Valley can ignore.

Last week students at Milton-Freewater's McLoughlin High School had
an opportunity to meet two young women from Beaverton who are
recovering crystal meth addicts.

The Mac-Hi students also saw a short but powerful film called "Meth
Misery" that showed graphic images of meth user's teeth rotted away
as well as other horrors associated with the use of the drug. In one
scene a young woman talks about nearly burning to death cooking the
drug. Another scene showed photos from a brutal killing motivated by
a meth addiction.

But having two women tell their stories might have sent the most
powerful message. Their stories shocked many of the students who
heard them, including 15-year-old Kasey Erm.

The girls, she said, didn't seem like the type to get hooked on meth.

"I thought it was pretty devastating," Erm said.

Mac-Hi Principal Ralph Brown told the students who had gathered for
the presentation that meth is a problem everywhere.

"The one thing that is most terrible about it is nobody in this room
is immune to it," Brown said.

The point is that meth addiction can, and does, happen here in the
Walla Walla Valley and throughout Walla Walla and Umatilla counties.
The drug is easy to get, and easier to get hooked on.

Teen-agers - and their parents - need to understand that becoming a
meth addict can happen.

Accepting that reality isn't easy, as Mac-Hi students can attest,
but it might help them avoid getting involved with meth.

It could save their lives.