DA TO HOST CONFERENCE ON METH, HOPES TO STEM USE

SALEM - It's coming.

The next illicit drug wave - methamphetamines - which has ravaged
families and the environment out West, is headed East, says District
Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

He doesn't want local law enforcement, educators, social-service
providers and public-health officials caught flatfooted. Blodgett is
organizing a daylong conference June 15 with experts from as far away
as Hawaii and California to address the stark consequences of complacency.

Blodgett said his idea for a local conference came after listening to
the experts at law enforcement conferences. One speaker after another
hammered home the ills of the highly addictive stimulant, Blodgett said.

"If you don't think it's coming this way, you're deluding yourself,"
he said. "They all say the same thing: You better get ready."

Though federal data from 2005 shows a meth-use rate of only 0.1
percent in Massachusetts, the drug has crossed the Pacific from
Hawaii to California and made its way through the Southwest, said
Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle, the keynote speaker.

"It's now heading toward the East Coast and ready to do its damage,"
he said. "It's beginning to surface in terms of labs and use in some
areas of New England."

In Salisbury, four men were arrested in late October and charged with
possession of 11 pounds of methamphetamine. The suspects imported the
highly addictive drug from a "super lab" in Mexico and were hoping to
establish a New England market, U.S. Attorney Thomas Colantuono said
a month after the arrests. And an Amesbury man was arrested Dec. 22
for carrying a stolen, loaded pistol and $45,000 worth of crystal meth.

As bad as the region's opiate epidemic has been - with the hundreds
of overdose deaths, serious health-care implications and related
crime, Blodgett said methamphetamine use is potentially worse.

The drug - which also goes by the names crystal, ice, crank and glass
- - is addictive and mind altering with its euphoric high. Meth also
poses lasting environmental hazards because it can be readily made
with a mixture of over-the-counter ingredients in small "mom and pop"
labs next door. If it doesn't explode first, the toxic waste is often
dumped in streams and sewers.

Addicts also lose their sense of self and responsibility. They
routinely expose their children to the drug and to crime, Blodgett said.

The district attorney said the June 15 invitation-only conference is
meant to heighten local awareness. It's his "clarion call," and he
hopes to fill the ballroom at the Peabody Marriott.

If the labs come, he wants the resources and public-health strategies
in place. If children are truant, he wants educators aware. Or if
kids go neglected, he hopes the social-service agencies will be
prepared to step in.

"I think I have an obligation to speak out about the potential
dangers," Blodgett said. "If it comes, it may come fast and furious."

Other public-safety officials have also made efforts to prepare
themselves for the arrival of meth. In January, Methuen firefighters
became among the first regionally to receive special training on how
to spot home labs.

Drugstore workers are often the first to spot methamphetamine abuse
when they see customers buying or shoplifting large amounts of cold
remedies and cough syrups, police said. Some pharmacies, including
Target, have removed the drugs from the shelves to prevent abuse.

The experts Blodgett consulted have been universal in their advice:
Start preparing now.

Carlisle has spoken in more than a dozen states about the ill effects
of meth. He's seen first-hand the loss of life and the dramatic
personality and appearance changes.

"The job is not to fix it after it happens," Carlisle said. "It's to stop it."

Carlisle said at the conference he'll address many of the issues that
arise from methamphetamine use. In Hawaii and California, for
example, 35 percent to 45 percent of those arrested have meth in
their system, he said.

He will also talk about the physical effects and changes in behaviors
of meth users as well as legal strategies to prevent the drug from
taking hold locally.

"The more people know about meth, the more political will there will
be to stem off the flow of meth to the New England area," the
Honolulu prosecutor said. "The key to meth is prevention, prevention,
prevention. Period."

Blodgett expects to post materials presented at the June conference
on his Web site shortly after the event.