TO STOP METH, FAMILIES MUST CRACK DOWN ON MARIJUANA

BOYS TOWN, Neb. -- Jalyn Todd said she first used methamphetamine in 1992
to lose weight.

In the months that followed she became heavily addicted, Todd said.

She neglected her two children, lost weight, developed open sores and had
other health problems, Todd said. At 40 years old, she weighed 90 pounds.

Finally, she looked at herself in the mirror and decided she did not want
to die, Todd said. She sought counseling and by 1993 had taken steps to
turn her life around, she said.

Now a drug and alcohol counselor in Lincoln, Todd told about 200 people at
a conference on methamphetamine that the drug can affect anyone.

"This is an equal-opportunity drug," Todd said. "It takes everybody."

The Nebraska Foster Care Review Board sponsored the daylong conference at
Girls and Boys Town. Set up for case managers, foster care providers,
attorneys, judges and others working in the juvenile courts system, the
conference focused on the dangers methamphetamine poses to children; police
and legislative responses and possible treatments for addicts.

The review board began seeing an increase in the number of children taken
from homes because of meth-addicted parents about two years ago, executive
director Carolyn Stitt said.

The board studies the effects of general drug use on the foster care
system, and it plans to study methamphetamine's effect more specifically,
she said.

The board also plans to hold similar methamphetamine conferences this
summer in Grand Island, North Platte and Scottsbluff, she said.

At Friday's gathering, U.S. Attorney Mike Heavican warned that alcohol and
marijuana are gateway drugs to methamphetamine. Parents need to crack down
on any illegal drug use in their homes, he said, or the growing meth
problem will not go away.

"You need to be indignant in your homes, your schools, about OEinnocent'
use of marijuana," Heavican said.

If parents are not tough on their children the methamphetamine problem will
continue to grow, Heavican said.

Shane Flynn, the Nebraska State Patrol's Clandestine Laboratory
Coordinator, said it is easier for high school children to get meth than it
is for them to obtain a six-pack of beer. Flynn, who has worked in the
narcotics division since 1997, said street prices for meth have dropped by
700 percent over the last 10 years.

Flynn said law enforcement cannot deal with the problem alone.
Methamphetamine is so addictive that doctors need to be involved, Flynn
said. Children found in homes where meth is being made need to be placed in
safe environments, Flynn said.

Children can be exposed in the womb and from toxic chemicals used in
home-based meth labs. Nationally, thousands of children have been taken
away from meth-abusing parents in recent years and placed with relatives or
overloaded foster care systems.

Meth is a powerful stimulant that can be smoked, snorted, swallowed or
injected. It contains pseudoephedrine, found in common over-the-counter
cold medications. The drug often is cooked in small quantities in kitchens,
trailers or car trunks.

The state Legislature is considering a bill (LB117) designed to impede
access to pseudoephedrine. The bill would require people who buy popular
cold medicines such as Sudafed and Claritin to be at least 18 and show
identification, and sellers of the products to be at least 19.

Under the bill, items containing pseudoephedrine would have to be kept
behind store counters or in locked cabinets.