Anti-Drug Summit highlights problems and proposes solutions to meth epidemic

 

By Michael Moore
Organizers were pleased with the large crowds attending the 2006 Anti-Drug Summit last Tuesday, May 16 at Appalachian Technical College's new conference center.
A luncheon for business and community leaders, and an evening presentation for parents and children featured numerous speakers and exhibits to educate local people about the dangers of drugs and particularly methamphetamine, whose presence and use are growing in Pickens County.
The event was organized by the college, Pickens County Family Connection, and Pickens County Schools. About 500 people were present at the luncheon, and about 250 people attended the evening session.
The featured speaker at both sessions was Chuck Wade, state director of the Drugs Don't Work program, and president and CEO of the Council on Alcohol and Drugs, a prevention agency that works with employers to create drug-free workplaces.
Wade was a police officer for 15 years, eleven of which he served as an undercover narcotics officer.
He said his years in law enforcement showed him illegal drug use is "the most serious" problem facing the country today.
"The drug problem in America is a contagious, terminal plague. It is destroying our country from within--morally, ethically, and economically," said Wade at the luncheon, where he gave a different speech than he did in the evening presentation. He said the assembled crowd was the largest he has seen in 13 years of providing free drug education seminars.
He said $290 billion of federal tax money has been spent since 1980 to try to stop drugs from coming into America.
But such government efforts to diminish the supply of drugs have failed, Wade said, as drug use in America, and overseas production of drugs, has vastly grown.
"Attacking the supply side of the problem has not worked in the past, it will not work now, and it will not work in the future," said Wade.
Instead, he said, "simple economics" dictate that reducing the demand for drugs is the only way to solve the problem. He said research has proven that education, treatment, and prevention are the best ways to reduce demand.
One way to use this approach, Wade told the assembled crowd of business owners and employers, is for communities to encourage the creation of state certified drug-free workplaces.
He said the "largest concentration of demand" for drugs is in the workplace, as 77 percent of all drug users are employed. "If we could get every business in Georgia to become a drug-free workplace, we could reduce the drug problem in this state by 77 percent," said Wade.
There are five steps to becoming a state certified drug-free workplace, Wade said, one of which is that employers must provide drug education to their employees every year.
More than 7,000 businesses employing over 850,000 people in Georgia are certified drug-free workplaces currently, Wade said.
Wade also noted that children whose parents regularly talk to them about the dangers of drugs, are 66 percent less likely to ever take drugs than kids whose parents don't discuss the issue.
Addressing parents and children at the evening session of the Anti-Meth Summit, Wade said the drug problem "is worse than it's ever been, and it's getting worse every day."
He said throughout history America has suffered from different kinds of drug epidemics. The only way past epidemics have been defeated was when the perceived risk of using that drug grew increasingly evident, said Wade.
All sectors of the community --such as healthcare, the business community, and faith based organizations--should work together, Wade said, to "re-educate" people about drugs.
Wade told the assembled parents about the importance of 16 drug prevention principles to use with their kids.
He listed the principles, which include talking about drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) on a regular basis; focusing education on the particular drug that is most rampant in a community; strengthening family bonds; focusing on children's academic performance and resisting peer pressure; combining school and family; and using interactive methods to teach children about drugs.
Also speaking at both summit events was Christie Hightower, a Pickens High School student who is on the Family Connection Youth Leadership Council.



 Hightower said the main reasons teenagers begin to use drugs are "to be accepted, find a purpose, and find companionship."
She said these factors can be addressed with more recreational facilities, "to provide the youth with places to interact in positive ways while working towards similar goals." She also said a community anti-drug fund can be used to increase community awareness.
The Youth Leadership Council is also working to expand apprenticeship programs to keep teenagers productively occupied and interested in a potential career, Hightower said. Two recovering drug abusers were also present at the Anti-Meth Summit to share the experiences of their addictions to alcohol and drugs.
Christina Early spoke at the luncheon session. She said after being clean of drugs and alcohol for over three years, "For once in my life I'm grateful to be alive."
Early said she started drinking when she was 13 years old. She soon began skipping school and running away from home, and was in rehab by the time she was 15. When she was 24 years old, she lost her children to DFCS.
"But all I cared about was my addiction," said Early.
Now, after completing drug court and staying clean of drugs, Early is enrolled at Dalton State College cosmetology school, and has regained full custody of one of her children and joint custody of another. She and her husband are enrolled in foster care classes to regain custody of her third child.
At the later meeting, recovering addict Amber Pack addressed the audience. She said she started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana when she was in middle school. By the time she was 12 years old, she was using methamphetamine "every day," and was not going to school, she said.
"You don't care. You think you're invincible," said Pack.
She had tried to quit using meth a few times, but would start again, she said. After moving in with her grandparents she was once sent to a youth detention center, but ran away.
Eventually she was arrested and spent over seven months in a rehab center. Since that time she has been sober. Pack said she still attends group counseling meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. She thanked her grandmother Jeri Pack, who also spoke at the summit and who Amber said "has always been there for me," despite the trouble she caused when she was younger.
"Meth tears the family up," Jeri Pack told the crowd. "It makes your life hell."
She said drugs changed Amber from a "sweet girl" into a "habitual liar and a manipulative person."
Also speaking at both meetings was Appalachian Circuit Superior Court judge Brenda Weaver, who presides over the drug court.
Highlighting the magnitude of meth use in this area, the judge said one in ten residents of north Georgia is a meth user.
She said in truancy court parents routinely test positive--on their court date--for having meth in their system, and their children are subsequently taken into state custody.
"There's no dollar amount on the pain of a child whose mom doesn't care enough to want to take care of them," said Weaver.
Jean Hollaran, executive director of Pickens County DFCS, spoke about the long-term medical costs that can result from meth use.
She said Pickens has the third highest rate of children entering foster care of all the counties in Georgia. Since July 2005, Hollaran said DFCS has taken 58 children into custody, and 27 of those cases were directly related to the parents' meth use. Many others were taken into DFCS care for reasons indirectly related to drugs.
Hollaran told the story of a child who was taken into DFCS custody at birth, because her mother had been using methamphetamine while she was pregnant.
"The child was born with symptoms of drug babies. She was diagnosed as being developmentally delayed," said Hollaran.
She said the child is unable to digest her food, and will likely require occupational, speech, and physical therapy into adulthood. She is currently under frequent care at clinics and physicians offices, and needs special equipment to carry out everyday tasks.
"I don't have an exact cost of how much has been spent on this one child's medical care, but I know it's a high price to pay," said Hollaran.