REPORT: METH USE CLAIMS 56 LIVES

Increase In Overdose Fatalities Has State Officials Working To Curb
Drug Problem

Over the span of three years, methamphetamine has killed 56 people in
New Mexico. The southwest, northeast and southeast regions of the
state have seen the biggest increases in overdose fatalities.

Growing numbers of New Mexico students are sampling the cheap,
illegal and highly addictive drug, with males and American Indians
reporting use more often than females and other ethnic groups.

And while police have succeeded in shutting down some meth labs, the
substance remains widely available throughout the state due to
shipments from Mexico.

A group of state experts -- convened by drug czar Herman Silva and
Reena Szczepanski, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico --
mulled over these and other facts while devising a plan to take on
the illegal stimulant. In a recent report, the work group compiled
its recommendations, some of which might be proposed as legislation
in 2006. Meth can be smoked, snorted, eaten or injected. Insomnia,
violent behavior, mood swings and tooth loss are mild symptoms,
compared to what can happen with prolonged use. Worse reactions
include kidney complications, lung disorders, brain damage, blood
clots and death.

According to the report, prevention should be stepped up, with better
coordination between agencies, governments and communities. Also,
efforts to reduce the trafficking of meth from Mexico to the United
States should be a priority.

Reducing the amount of harm addicts do to themselves and others is
another emphasis of the report: New Mexico should make syringe
exchange as well as infectious-disease testing available in every
public-health office. Also, funding and standards should be raised
for cleaning up meth labs, which leave behind harmful contaminants.

People who shoot up meth put themselves at risk for HIV and hepatitis
infections. But by exchanging their used needles for new ones under a
state program, those risks can be minimized. Nearly 9,000
participants in the program have been enrolled in New Mexico since
1998, according to the report, and about 2,000 report meth use.

Effective treatment for meth addicts exists. One apparently effective
example is Border Area Mental Health Services in Deming, which
involves at least three sessions per week for three to four months,
plus follow-up care for a year after treatment.

But New Mexico should increase the number of behavioral-health
providers through more vigorous recruitment and the credentialing of
lay people, according to the report, and offer more treatment to
prisoners. The report also promotes the use of alternative
interventions, such as Eastern medicine and American Indian healing traditions.

Tiny rural communities, such as Capitan in the southern part of the
state, are pockets where meth is festering.

"They figure they'll be less detected in a smaller community,"
Capitan Police Chief Robert Bird said in a telephone interview
Thursday. This week, Bird attended New Mexico Attorney General
Patricia Madrid's Meth Summit in Albuquerque, where he learned the
recovery rate for meth addicts is 10 percent. "They say when you get
on, you never get off the train," Bird said.

When Bird became police chief in May, he announced in the local
newspaper that it was time for the drug dealers to leave. Since
issuing that warning, "I have been actively pursuing the drug problem
around here," he said. "It's hard to get the main line guys (who
shuttle the drugs). If we can, we'll do it."

In July, a police operation netted 2 ounces of crystal meth (which
has a street value of about $5,600) and three suspected drug dealers,
Bird said. But now he's frustrated. Bird has called on Gov. Bill
Richardson for a special investigator to help put the three suspected
dealers in jail, after the district attorney dismissed charges
against the trio because the police operation used a man on probation.

As far as what the state as a whole should do to thwart meth, Bird
kept it simple: "Just zero in on it. What else can you do ?"