CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON METHAMPHETAMINE

About 250 community leaders made more than 50 recommendations Thursday --
ranging from regulating the sale of cold medicine to encouraging insurance
companies to fund addiction treatment -- in hopes of solving Oklahoma
County's methamphetamine problem. Church leaders, educators, law
enforcement officers, elected officials, treatment experts, neighborhood
association representatives and others from various backgrounds attended
the Oklahoma County Methamphetamine Summit.

The ideas they developed will be used to create a comprehensive plan to
reduce the number of methamphetamine users and manufacturers in the county.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Crime Prevention
Council and Community Oriented Policing Services partnered with District
Attorney Wes Lane for the summit.

James Copple, vice president for public policy and program development at
the crime prevention center, said other cities that have implemented
comprehensive community plans such as the one developed Thursday in
Oklahoma County have seen reductions in crime of between 40 and 80 percent.

Lane said he is hoping to see a similar outcome in Oklahoma City.

"If we saw a dramatic decrease like they have seen in other communities as
a result of what we are talking about today, then ... what we are going to
see is a safer community," Lane said.

Participants spent the morning session listening to the officials who have
organized similar summits in other states plagued by meth. DEA Director Asa
Hutchinson delivered the keynote address, telling community leaders that
they can take control of the drug problem.

"In the last 20 years, we've reduced overall drug use in this country by 50
percent," Hutchinson said. "We can have the same success in this effort."

Federal officials chose Oklahoma as one of four states to host a summit
this year after the state was third in the nation in methamphetamine labs
seized with 1,193 labs in 2001.

Oklahoma County had the most labs of any county with 261. Unlike other
drugs, meth can be manufactured by almost anyone. Many of the ingredients
are available at retail stores.

Participants broke into 13 groups -- law enforcement, health services,
neighborhood associations, etc. -- and discussed the meth problem from the
perspective of those institutions.

Participants identified the five biggest problems their groups face in
fighting meth. For law enforcement, manpower shortages were listed as the
biggest problem.

Mental health officials said the lack of treatment for addicts was their
biggest problem.

Groups then analyzed barriers such as funding shortages that prevented them
from overcoming those problems.

The groups then discussed specific solutions that they believed would help
overcome those barriers and solve the problems. A health group said easy
access to pseudoephedrine, a common cold medicine that is the most common
meth precursor, was one of the biggest problems.

The group suggested putting pseudoephedrine behind the counter at
pharmacies and making customers show identification when buying the drug,
hoping the process would weed out those buying large amounts to manufacture
meth.

Hutchinson said other states where summits have been held passed laws
limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine each customer could buy.

"The regulation of those chemicals and medicines has had a significant
impact," Hutchinson said.

The mental health group suggested working with insurance companies and
lobbying the federal government to help pay for meth addiction treatment.

All of the problems identified and solutions proposed Thursday will be
taken to the crime prevention center where they will be organized into one
document, Copple said.

"Over the next two or three weeks, we are going to draft a plan based upon
your recommendations," Copple told the participants. "We are going to send
that plan back out to you as a conference report, and we are going to ask
you to rank each of the solutions."

Participants will decide how important and how realistic the solutions are
and rank them accordingly. The plan then will be revised to give priority
to the solutions that are most important and easiest to implement.

Lane said involving a broad range of community leaders in the summit was
important, both to give them a sense of ownership in the plan and to make
them feel that they have control over their neighborhoods.

"I've walked into some neighborhood meetings in which there was an absolute
state of despair and hopelessness," Lane said. "In this particular
instance, they do have control. When people come together and feel like
they helped make the solution, then they are all the more motivated to see
to it that the solution actually happens."