Janice Peterson - DAILY HERALD | Posted: Sunday, October 28, 2007 11:00 pm
Methamphetamine use is a growing problem in the United States, but with a statewide campaign against the drug in Utah, officials are hoping to curb the trend.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. recently convened a task force to combat the drug's use across Utah. Billboard and television campaigns are helping to raise awareness, and cities in Utah County are attacking the problem as well.
"Realistically, it's countywide," said Lt. Phil Murphy of the Utah County major crimes task force. "We're seeing it in every community."
Murphy said it is important to raise awareness of the drug problem because many people do not know they are directly affected.
Although a person may not know someone who uses meth, Murphy said most thefts from cars, homes and businesses are ways to fund meth use. Anyone who has been a victim of a crime, may have been a victim of meth.
"That crime, I can guarantee you, is associated with somebody's meth problem," he said. "They have to fund (the meth addiction) to subsidize their problem."
Gordon Bruin, project services manager for the Utah County Division of Substance Abuse, said meth users accounted for about 28 percent of the clients in his program in 2006. Nationally, he said the rate was only 8 percent.
Bruin agreed that many crimes can be related to methamphetamine use, including burglary and prostitution.
"When someone is in the mode of addiction, they'll do whatever they have to do to support the habit," he said. "People aren't in their rational mind when they do this."
Murphy said his task force is constantly working to stop the drug from coming into the valley. Some strides have been made in that not as many meth labs are in Utah anymore.
"We're not seeing hundreds and hundreds of labs in the state like there was 15 years ago," he said.
This progress has helped, but Murphy said the drug is now coming into Utah ready-made, so it is difficult to catch large suppliers.
Officers must now find people with large quantities of the drug, whereas finding the labs was a matter of watching who bought supplies to make the drug.
The Division of Substance Abuse will soon be opening another Promise of Women and Families treatment program in Spanish Fork, Bruin said. The treatment center serves mothers who deal with addiction. Mothers can bring their children with them so they do not have to find a baby sitter in order to get treatment.
The program already exists in Orem, but Bruin said many clients come from the south county area and a new center will ease transportation and convenience problems.
Bruin said an open house will be held for the center Nov. 28, two days before National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.
Murphy said most meth users are in their 20s and 30s and were addicted to drugs for years before they tried meth. However, he said, teens are at risk to become addicts if they develop an addiction to prescription pills first.
"Unfortunately, a lot of kids start experimenting with prescription drugs," he said. "If they can't get that, they find that meth and heroin are actually cheaper."
Marianne Stephens found this out the hard way in 1995. Stephens was on the Springville/Mapleton high school PTA when she and other mothers discovered their sons were addicted to drugs.
"I had a son who struggled with this since 1995, 1996," she said. "He graduated with a group of kids who got into trouble with this."
The boys first became addicted to prescription pain medication and robbed their friends' and neighbors' medicine cabinets. When they couldn't afford the pills, her son and others turned to heroin.
Stephens said she and the PTA went to the Nebo School Board with the problem and began a PTA Red Ribbon night to teach parents and youth the dangers of drugs.
"Our purpose is to let the parents know what's going on with the youth, and teach them about the drugs that are out there," Stephens said.
The 11th annual PTA Red Ribbon night was held at Springville High School on Wednesday, with an audience of more than 300 parents. Stephens now works with Youthnet, a volunteer organization that works with the Springville/Mapleton PTA and the Nebo School Board to put on the drug awareness night.
Brad Barham, president and founder of the Pathways drug treatment program, spoke to parents Wednesday about protecting children against the new face of drugs.
Barham said it is important for parents to be aware of the new forms drugs come in because it is different today than when they were growing up.
One important fact Stephens learned was that methamphetamine can now be found in a candy form, she said.
"Instead of choosing between smoking or snorting meth, now you can choose between orange, grape and vanilla meth," Barham said.
The candy meth has the diameter of a straw, but it is five times stronger than the street form, he said. The drug also now comes in a powder form that looks like chocolate or strawberry Quik.
The drug has become more dangerous in its candy form because youth and young children, especially toddlers, can take the drug without knowing what it is, she said.
"Because it comes in the candy form, it's out there big time with the kids," she said. "They can be so easily left on the bus, or left on the bleachers at the football field or in the desk at school."