FIGHTING METH FROM ALL SIDES

Battle against drug includes manufacture, sales, addiction

Law enforcement agencies in this area know the enemy: Methamphetamine. These
agencies are working against those who make and distribute the drug, taking
some unique approaches to keep methamphetamine off the streets.

They work these investigations the way they would any drug case, by
gathering information and watching suspects. But law enforcement officers
are trying to nab would-be methamphetamine makers before they get their drug
on the market. Narcotics investigators are working with merchants to let
them know what kind of purchases should raise their suspicions that a
customer may be planning to manufacture the drug.

A forceful law enforcement effort is needed to try to curb use of a
dangerous drug that apparently continues to grow in popularity.

But there is another direction from which this drug problem can be
addressed, and Dr. Mary Holley is uniquely positioned to help in that
effort.

Holley is a doctor who can tell people about what methamphetamine does to
them from a medical standpoint, and as a sister who lost her brother as a
result of drug addiction, she can speak first hand about its effect on the
addict's life and that of his family. And as a Christian, she has found a
compassionate approach to teach what she knows from her job and from the
personal experience of her brother's addiction and death to others.

She started an organization called Mothers Against Methamphetamine to help
distribute literature she has developed to educate people about addiction.

With finances tightening at all levels of government, there is going to be
less money for all things, including drug treatment

It is hard to measure which role in the fight against methamphetamine is the
most important. Law enforcement is vital, and the effort to police
ingredients of the drug before it is made should cut into the profit margin
for those who trade on making addicts.

But helping people addicted to the drug to free themselves from it, and
educating people about the dire physical effect of using methamphetamine,
organizations like Holley's could curb the demand for the drug. When the
risks people take in making and trafficking in methamphetamine equal or
outweigh the profit from dealing, we can expect to see a real decrease in
the drug problem.