METH ABUSE DECLINING IN BRADFORD COUNTY

At a town hall meeting Monday in Towanda hosted by U.S. Rep. Chris
Carney, local officials discussed how methamphetamine is becoming
less of a problem in Bradford County, while crack cocaine and
prescription drug abuse are on the rise locally. Much of the
discussion at the town hall meeting was on the local drug problem and
what to do about it.

Bradford County Drug & Alcohol Program Director Phil Cusano, Bradford
County Children & Youth Services representative Kelly Smith and
Bradford County Commissioner Janet Lewis sat alongside Carney at the
front of the meeting, and offered their views on the drug problem.

Cusano said the methamphetamine problem has peaked in Bradford County.

In 2001 in Bradford County, only 1.9 percent of the admissions to
drug and alcohol treatment programs were for methamphetamine. By
2004, the number of meth abusers had increased to 13 percent of the
admissions, and the percentage of such admissions remained the same
in 2005, he said. However, largely due to the efforts of the
CommUnity Against Methamphetamine, which is the local
anti-methamphetamine task force started by Cusano and county Sheriff
Steve Evans, the problem then "started to turn (the corner)," he
said. By 2006, the number of Bradford County meth abusers decreased
to less than 11 percent of admissions, "and this year it is only 8
percent," Cusano said. "The Community Against Methamphetamine has
pretty much turned it," he said, adding that the task force has
taught thousands of Bradford Countians about the dangers of meth and
how to detect it. "We saw (with the local meth problem) that if there
is education and strong prevention programs, you can turn it (so that
the problem decreases)," Cusano said.

But officials at the town hall meeting said that other drug problems
are on the rise in Bradford County. Bradford County Commissioner
Janet Lewis said she had talked with the state police earlier this
week "and learned that crack cocaine and heroin are becoming a
problem in Bradford County," she said.

Smith said she does drug and alcohol assessments on students in the
public schools in Bradford County and found that abuse of
prescription drugs is also now a problem.

"Prescription medication seems to be the next wave for a lot of these
kids," Kelly said. "It's very easily accessible."

Parents need to lock up prescription medications so that their
teen-age children cannot get their hands on them, Kelly said.

"How many of us can say we have locked them up from our teen-age
children?" she asked rhetorically.

And yet many parents will lock up such medications so that young
children cannot find them. Plans are in the works to have the
anti-meth task force address issues besides methamphetamine, Cusano said.

"We're looking to expand CommUnity Against Methamphetamine into these
other issues," such as the types of drugs that are on the rise
locally, as well as alcohol abuse, Cusano said.

Cusano also indicated that the methamphetamine problem may become
worse again at some point in the future in Bradford County. Carney
said that even though meth may be on the decline in Bradford County,
a bill he had co-sponsored to address part of the meth problem is
still important. The bill, HR 365, would provide resources to
communities to clean up the homes where meth labs had been located.

The labs leave behind dangerous toxins, he said. Carney said he
agreed with Windham Township resident Gale Bowen, who said at the
meeting that more should be done to help kids before they are at the
point that they are at risk for developing drug problems.

"We need to put more money in early childhood education," the
congressman said. "If we can start them off in the right way, they
can avoid a lot of the problems we're mentioning today," Carney said,