NEW TOOLS NEEDED TO FIGHT METHAMPHETAMINE, OFFICIAL SAYS

ROGERS -- Pessimism about the success of the war on drugs wasn't one
of the courses served Friday at the 4th annual Methamphetamine
Awareness Luncheon.

The luncheon wrapped up a monthlong campaign by law enforcement
officials and organizations.

Speakers focused presentations on the battle against meth use and the
goal of providing treatment.

Bob Balfe, United States attorney for the Western District of
Arkansas, said to win and beat the "War on Meth," it will take more
than arresting and treating residents.

Brian Culpepper, an officer with the Rogers Police Department,
received special congressional recognition from 3rd District Rep. John
Boozman, R-Rogers, and a plaque from the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce.

Culpepper was injured in the line of duty last October while serving a
drug-related arrest warrant at a residence in Monte Ne. *

"We're out there every day," Culpepper said of law enforcement. "We
really are trying."

The "War on Drugs" title alone doesn't sit well with Arkansas' new
drug czar, Fran Flener of Batesville.

"I can't win it, so I'm not going to recognize it," Flener said of the
commonly used title.

Instead, Flener used the term "Weapons of Mass Destruction" to refer
to the tactics to fight meth use.

Flener described tools such as preschool and afterschool programs,
juvenile and adult drug courts, an increase in funding for law
enforcement, and monitoring the abuse of prescription drugs.

Boozman said the most effective tool is drug court. If a resident
attends drug court, he or she must get a general equivalency degree,
have a job, be frequently drug-tested and receive treatment. The judge
can keep a resident in the program for an extended period of time, or
the judge can incarcerate the individual, Boozman said.

Results from the courts have been good, he said.

Treatment is just one of the rising "hopes" Flener holds onto in the
fight against meth use.

Residents who use meth can go to any health care service to seek
treatment. Patients are protected under confidentiality laws that
prevent health care providers from revealing drug use to law
enforcement officials, Flener said.

The state must "marry child welfare and substance abuse" in order to
bring a better quality to women's programs, she told the audience.

The state, however, lacks adequate resources to pay for those
services, she said.

As the new drug czar appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe, Flener said she
brings cooperation to prevention, treatment and law
enforcement.

"It's too critical a point in history," Flener said, "(We're) losing
too many valuable citizens to substance abuse."

Boozman said methamphetamine used to be trafficked into the United
States from Canada. The drugs were manufactured in an easy-to-crumble
pill form.

Since Congress passed the Combat Meth Epidemic Act, which controls the
sale of the ingredients used for creating methamphetamine, the drug
now is getting into the states along another border, he said.

Nearly 80 percent of the country's meth is shipped from Mexico in a
pure form and at a cheap price.

For the past six years Boozman has worked with law enforcement
officials to designate Northwest Arkansas as a High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area.

He said he continues to push for more federal funding for both law
enforcement and treatment.

[sidebar]

BY THE NUMBERS

Methamphetamine Awareness Month

The Benton County Methamphetamine Task Force educated 3,130 young
people during October at Pea Ridge, Bentonville, Rogers and Decatur
schools, and 175 adults at community programs.