STATE SHOULD INTENSIFY ITS DRUG EDUCATION EFFORTS

Three weeks ago the Enterprise-Journal began a four-part series on the drug
crystal methamphetamine and how it has become a serious problem in
southwest Mississippi, on par with crack cocaine.

The reporting, by Staff Writer David Bruser, was first-rate, as was the
photography by Aaron Rhoads. Readers got a good look at how the latest in a
never-ending list of drugs has affected a lot of people.

The series, plus regular accounts in the newspaper about Pike County
Circuit Court and drug-related crime, posed a question that citizens will
soon have to address: How can we best use our tax dollars to fight the maze
of problems that drugs cause?

Circuit Judge Keith Starrett and narcotics agent Ronnie Frazier, answer
that with one word: education.

"I don't think there's a school in the state of Mississippi that has
mandatory drug education," said Frazier, the regional director for the
Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. Until it becomes mandatory from elementary
school through junior high, he doesn't think drug use will decline.

Starrett, who pioneered the use of a drug court in Mississippi, where
convicts must pass weekly drug screens for up to two years, believes
schools should hold drug education courses at least once a week.

"Your cost benefit on education is the best," Starrett said. "Your second
best is with treatment.

"The least efficient way to spend the money is enforcement."

Frazier and other drug agents sure have job security because of the spread
of narcotics through society. But, as the movie "Traffic" so deftly showed
last year, the United States seems to be devoting too much of its resources
to stopping the importation and sale of drugs - and not enough to help
people get off drugs or, better yet, avoid them in the first place.

The lack of two-parent homes is the biggest problem in America because of
the emotional toll it takes on families, especially children. But drugs has
to be a close second.

"When you talk to somebody about crack cocaine or meth, they say, 'It's
good, it just makes me feel good, I don't feel the pressures of life, I
don't worry about the bills to pay,' " Frazier said. "They just want
another hit.

"Crack cocaine, I see fewer people that can walk away from it than I have
meth. But this meth is just a cannibal. It's eating people up."

Starrett concurred, saying that in drug court, crystal meth addicts remain
in the program for a year, while crack addicts stay two. However, he is
considering increasing the meth testing period to two years.

"We're having more success with meth than we are with crack," he said. "I
think it's easier to deal with - the withdrawal to meth is not as serious.
Crack is just a magnet, it's always pulling on you. It gets less and less,
but it's there."

He and Frazier differ over whether addicts can be forced into treatment.

"You gotta want help to get help," Frazier said. "I know a lot of mothers
and fathers and aunts and uncles that have spent tons of money on rehab.
And we have one of the best in the country right here in Jolimar. But we
see them six months later and they're right back in the middle of it."

Starrett said that's changing. "A year or two, or five years ago, that was
the consensus opinion. But forced treatment does work. A lot of times it is
successful. ... In drug court, our program has about a 90 percent success
rate."

He said programs like drug court are a good complement to rehab centers.
Most people from this area who lack insurance or can't afford expensive
treatment spend 42 days at Newhaven Recovery Center in Brookhaven, which
costs $450 minimum.

Nobody wants to burden schools with another task. But it's clear that
teaching kids about the evils of drugs - and we may as well include the
legal ones like tobacco, liquor and prescription medication - is just as
beneficial as teaching math or reading.

More intensive drug education is an idea worth considering. For all of our
"Just Say No" efforts over the last three decades, drugs remain too strong
a temptation for many teens and adults. For all the money we've spent on
law enforcement, drugs are probably easier than ever to find, and more
potent to boot.

"People are scared," Frazier said. "They don't want to talk about dope and
they don't want to talk about sex with their kids. And the two things we
are having trouble with in Mississippi are what? Dope and teenage pregnancies."

- -Series Index
US MS: Meth Hits Sw Miss. Hard And Fast
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1152/a01.html

US: Meth Cooks Prefer 'Nazi' Method
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1152/a05.html

US MS: Farmers First Line Of Meth Defense
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1171/a14.html

US MS: Lawmen Fight New Battle
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1181/a09.html --