Marysville

FREE COURSES TO BRING METH WOES INTO FOCUS

MARYSVILLE - Meth use is going to get an intensive look over two nights
here next week.

The setting will be free classes put on by Marysville University, a series
of quarterly civic-learning courses sponsored by the city. The program next
Wednesday and Feb. 13 is called "Drugs and Methamphetamine in Our Community."

The program will examine the effects of the drugs on the city and Snohomish
County.

The discussion will include personal accounts of what drug abuse has done
to individuals and families, and describe how law enforcement is trying to
combat the problem.

Speakers will include Ross Wigney, president of Ausclean Technologies, a
firm that cleans up drug labs; Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish County
Regional Drug Task Force; Tammy Sheary, who has become an anti- drug
advocate since the murder of her son in a meth-related crime in Marysville
last spring; Jeff Goldman, a Marysville police sergeant; Jim Maples, a
Marysville police detective; and Colleen Bowls, a former
drug-and-alcohol-intervention specialist who now is teen-advocate manager
at Cocoon House, a group home in Everett.

The program will be held from 7 to 9 both nights in the Ken Baxter
Senior/Community Center, 514 Delta Ave. Attendees are asked to call City
Hall at 360-651-5000 to reserve a seat for one or both nights.

A 2002 Marysville survey said respondents rated drugs as the city's
third-worst problem, after traffic and growth concerns.

The high drug rating led Mayor Dave Weiser and City Council members to
suggest conducting the classes on meth and other drugs.