Legislation would provide services for moms, willing quitters
By David Stroup, The Clackamas Review
It started with the west coast – but now the rest of the country is ready to take notice.
Rep.
The package now being prepared for introduction in
“We are concentrating on treatment,” Hooley said. “Prior to this we were concentrating on cutting down the supply, cutting down demand – this deals with the treatment piece.”
Treatment options
“People on drugs generally have other problems,” Hooley said. The legislation includes help for meth users seeking mental health treatment, as well as dental care: “Frequent meth users have huge dental problems,” she said, which can hurt them when they try to go clean and get a job.
There are other components to the legislation to help people go “clean and sober” and get on with their lives.
“Currently there is a fair amount of help for women who are pregnant, or post-partum women,” she said, “but not as much for parents who are caregivers of children.”
In addition, she said, drug users often commit other crimes.
“When they are taken to court they are given opportunities to get off drugs,” she noted, since the drug abuse is often the root cause of their crimes. “We’re trying to make sure that if a person is on drugs and has one of those ‘a-ha!’ moments – ‘this is not the life I want to lead’” they will be bale to get treatment, even if they haven’t just committed a crime; now, she said, that often isn’t available to people who have simply decided to get off drugs without court intervention.
“If somebody wants to get help, they can get help.”
A lot of the aid will be provided through grants to various agencies.
“There are a number of state and county groups,” Hooley said, “as well as private non-profit groups, that deal with treatment for addictions.”
Spreading problem
“It’s such an addictive drug,” Hooley said, “and it’s hard to get off of.”
Hooley said that they are successfully cracking down on the drug, and new laws have made a difference – but the problem hasn’t gone away.”
“What we’re hearing from the police and law enforcement is that it is getting better,” she said. “It’s harder for people to cook meth – the ingredients are harder to get a hold of. And because it’s harder it’s less pure than it used to be.”
However, that has meant a rise in meth brought into the country from so-called ‘superlabs’ outside the country, often in
“Yes, we have been working with the Mexican government,” she said. “And we have made progress – but it’s still a huge problem.”
“We’re still seeing it,” said Kevin Poppen of the Interagency Task Force.
“We really haven’t seen a decline,” he said. “The void has been filled by methamphetamine being imported up the I-corridor.”
Poppen said the local labs have largely been shut down by the new laws, and that has meant a savings in the cost to clean up the toxic chemical meth cooking operations – but “the void was immediately filled by meth being imported.”
“It’s an ounce here, a pound there,” he said – just last week they busted someone with 25 ounces of the drug, and he said that happens all the time. “We’re trying to put a finger on it, trying to slow it down, but we’re still seeing a lot of it.”
The drug, Hooley said, has a long history in the western
“When we first ran into meth it was known as the ‘I-5 corridor’ drug.”
That was 15 to 20 years ago. Hooley said she was a county commissioner when methamphetamine first came to public attention.
“When I first became aware of meth people in other parts of the country weren’t aware of it,” she said. “It hadn’t spread east.”
That spread has started to happen in just the last five to 1o years, she said.
The bills don’t have numbers yet; Hooley said they’re still refining them and getting them ready for introduction. To do that they’ve been talking experts in treatment and addiction.
“We said – ‘here’s what we’re looking at – is there anything else we can do?’”