AGENCIES AIM TO EDUCATE HISPANICS ON DRUG DANGERS

Area agencies are establishing a program to educate Hispanics about
methamphetamine and inhalants.

The Community Partnership, a substance abuse prevention group, will work
with migrant communities in Defiance, Fulton, Henry, and Williams counties
and with after-school programs in South Toledo.

The work is funded by a three-year, $350,000-a-year grant awarded last fall
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Substance
Abuse Prevention.

Meth labs have been found in rural areas in part because meth makers use
the same raw materials as farmers do for fertilizer and because rural areas
can offer drug makers seclusion.

Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Schweinhagen, who is assigned to the
regional drug task force, said the unit has seen more meth labs already
this year than in the last half of 2003.

In the first week of March, four labs in Defiance and Williams counties
have been shut down.

Although most meth users are white, a larger percentage of Hispanics than
of whites or blacks are users, Deacon Dzierzawski, the Community
Partnership's director, said.

Jose Salinas, director of the Ohio Migrant Education Center, said "We're
starting to see more and more methamphetamine use in the migrant camps."

In Lucas County, the most recent Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services board
survey of youths in grades 6 to 12 found that 6.7 percent of Hispanics, 3.5
percent of whites, and 1.9 percent of blacks had used meth, GHB, or Ecstasy
in the past year. Also, 9.1 percent of Hispanics, 6.3 percent of whites,
and 4.1 percent of blacks had used inhalants.

Those statistics are mirrored statewide. In the most recent survey of
youths in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 by PRIDE, an Atlanta-based organization,
31.3 percent of Hispanics, 23.8 percent of blacks, and 21.8 percent of
whites had used an illicit substance in the past year.

"We have not done a very good job at tailoring programs to the Hispanic
community," Mr. Dzierzawski said.

He said problems include distrust of outsiders and lack of access,
credibility, and money.

The curriculum will teach youths about the consequences of the drugs and
help them develop the decision-making and goal-setting skills they need to
decide that they don't want to be friends with drug users, said Martha
Carroll, professor emeritus of education at the University of Toledo, who
is helping develop the curriculum.

"We just figure that's more useful than just, 'Here's how you say no,' "
she said.

Adelante will offer after-school education to urban youths beginning in
September. Rural Opportunities, Inc., will begin a 12-lesson program
focusing on the rural migrant families in May. The Ohio Migrant Education
Center will offer a 12-week curriculum at the summer schools for students
of migrant families.

"While they need the same skills, there will be some differences based on
their environment," Dr. Carroll said.

Mr. Salinas said most of the meth users in the migrant camps are young
adults who can be a big influence on the children. He said he hopes the
program, which will target students in grades 4 through 8, could teach the
youths about "how it could really mess up your brain and your life" before
someone offers them drugs.

ROI will provide education, prevention, and intervention about drugs and
life skills that reflect the culture of the families, Nancy Hernandez,
youth education administrator, said.

Adelante will talk to youths ages 10 and up about identifying with their
school, workplace, or other cultures, as well as their ethnicity, Anamaria
Portillo, programs director, said.

She said the program will help them set goals for their lives and realize
they have a future, because a feeling of not fitting into society is a
reason some teenagers use drugs.

The groups will do testing throughout the three years of the grant.

"At the end of three years, we should have some idea of our effectiveness,"
Mr. Dzierzawski said.