U.S. DRUG CZAR WILL VISIT STATE

The methamphetamine epidemic infecting Montana and other Western states will
bring the nation's top drug control official to Billings this week.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, appointed by President Clinton to head of the Office
of National Drug Policy Control, has scheduled a visit that will include a
public "town hall" forum on the meth problem at 7 p.m. Thursday in the
Lincoln Education Center auditorium on Fourth Avenue North.

The methamphetamine problem has plagued Montana for several years and the
situation isn't improving, according to health care and law enforcement
professionals who regularly confront the suffering and crime caused by this
highly addictive, illegal drug.

"Montana reflects the problem," Kate Malliarakis, a McCaffrey aide, said
from Washington. She said it is hard to quantify the methamphetamine
problem, but the drug has hit rural areas where it tends to flourish for a
time before it is detected.

The problem has long been known in Billings and the surrounding region. Yet
the number of addicts and the number of methamphetamine-related crimes
continue to climb.

"I see a lot of crank as a complicating factor in people's lives," said Dr.
Larry McIlvoy of Deaconess Hospital's emergency department. People high on
methamphetamine come in hallucinating or attempting suicide. Family members
and others come in wounded from attacks by violent methamphetamine addicts.
And neglected children are brought to local hospitals, basically abandoned
by parents who care more for their drug than for their family.

Drug arrests have risen recently, going from 96 felony arrests in
Yellowstone County in 1998 to 126 in 1999. But those cases don't account for
most of the crimes related to the drug trade.

"A lot of our other crime - theft and burglary - is a product of the drug
trade," Yellowstone County Sheriff Chuck Maxwell said. "That's why they
steal - to buy drugs."

Pat Bellinghausen can be reached at 657-1303 or at pbelling@billings
gazette.com