WE ARE BEING BATTERED BY A BLIZZARD OF METH

IT wasn't an anti-drug Red Ribbon Week speaker who recently
enlightened a classroom of Temecula kindergartners about California's
pervasive methamphetamine problem.

It was their teacher. She was arrested on suspicion of being under
the influence of meth in the classroom. So much for the ABCs and
hooked on phonics. This was a lesson on average Californians getting
hooked on meth.

California is ground zero for the national meth epidemic. Estimates
from California's Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs suggest
more than one half million Californians have recently used meth and
many of them have crossed the invisible line into meth addiction.
It's a first. Publicly funded drug treatment centers are now seeing
more meth addicts than alcoholics. Of the 100,000 Californians in
drug treatment programs on any given day, one-third of them are
dependent on meth, according to the DPA.

The meth problem snaked its way into California through the backdoors
of rural communities where it originally was being cooked and
manufactured. It stayed under the radar for many years as it spread
throughout the state. Now it's everywhere.

From the farmlands to deep suburbia to the inner city, the public
health of the Golden State has been dramatically battered by a
blizzard of meth. At no time in California's history has one drug
done so much damage to so many people.

While it is obvious that people drawn into the trap of addiction have
their lives terribly degraded by meth, many others also suffer
serious damage from this plague. An especially cruel aspect of the
meth problem is the damage it is doing to the women and children in California.

Women are particularly drawn to meth because they believe it will
boost their energy, help them lose weight and cope with the demands
of family and work. In some cases it's been called "mother's little
helper." But it becomes "the disaster drug" when mom loses her
health, the kids to foster care, her job and the house.

Current research is showing that when pregnant women use meth it can
cause damage to the developing fetus. If kids are present in the
house or lab where meth is being manufactured, a high percentage of
children will test positive for the drug by inhaling the vapor of the
cooking drug and by accidentally absorbing the drug through skin
contact. While these direct effects of the drug on children are
damaging, the psychological damage done to kids raised in the
chaotic, neglectful and often violent lives of addict/parents is
equally if not more harmful.

No one wants to see kids taken from their parents, but when parents
are actively using meth, they are unable to provide their children
with safe or competent care. As a result, children raised by meth
producers and addicts are often taken from their parents and put into
an already overloaded foster care system.

There is hope. There is clear research evidence that meth users
respond positively to treatment. Treatment works. Over the past five
years, more than 100,000 Californians addicted to meth have received
treatment via Proposition 36. Without question, this voter initiative
has saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Research conducted in California demonstrates that treatment
delivered within a drug court works particularly well. Drug courts
give meth addicts a better chance at rehabilitation, help keep
families together and save the state millions of dollars in jail
expenses. Drug court judges and treatment programs create extremely
effective teams successfully keeping recovering users in treatment
for 12 to 18 months. It's necessary time for successful meth recovery.

Treatment assistance for Californians addicted to meth is part of a
solution, but we shouldn't sit by and treat the casualties. A
vigorous and effective public information campaign about the health
risks of using meth is critical. Accurate knowledge about the
devastating impact of meth on the body and brain can prevent new
users and the damage from meth can be prevented.

According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, roughly two-thirds
of the meth used in the United States comes from the larger labs,
increasingly in Mexico and controlled by Mexican crime organizations.
We need to ask for cooperation from the Mexican government and
toughen laws against smuggling meth over the border.

The meth epidemic in California has taken more than 20 years to build
to its current level. It is not going to go away anytime soon. It is
not a flash in the pan.

Although the White House has ignored the meth problem for far too
long, it has come out much stronger recently calling meth "the most
significant drug threat to California."

It's time to wake up.