MINNESOTA

Meth is an equal opportunity destroyer

“Meth is an equal opportunity destroyer,” said Sgt. Eric Leander of the Wright County Sheriff’s Department. “And we do see it in Otsego and we do see it in Rogers.”

Leander and Joel Torkelson, health educator with Wright County Human Services, were in Otsego last week speaking about the methamphetamine epidemic and MEADA’s efforts to combat it. “Meth has been in Wright County since 1995 and we truly don’t believe it has really peaked yet in Wright County,” Leander said.

Methamphetamine Education and Drug Awareness (MEADA) Coalition of Wright County was formed to educate youth, families and citizens on the dangers of drugs with a focus on methamphetamine. Meth is a homemade amphetamine made from common items such as antifreeze, white gas, ether, starting fluid, Freon, lye or drain openers, paint thinner, acetone, and ephedrine or pseudoephedrine cold pills. It can be produced fairly easily in a variety of locations, such as houses and cars.

However, said Leander, meth labs are less frequent since a law was enacted restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine (the precursor needed to make meth). MEADA is also participating in proposed legislation to outlaw different types of drug paraphernalia, such as pipes and scales, currently sold in some convenience or tobacco stores. It’s currently legal for adults to buy these items in Minnesota; according to the lawmakers, police can only arrest those for possessing paraphernalia when coated with illegal drugs or sold to minors. To illustrate the point, all of the paraphernalia on display at the Otsego meeting was purchased in Wright County.

“But,” said Leander, “I don’t recall any of this stuff being used to smoke tobacco.” According to Leander, it costs from $3,000–$30,000 to clean up the average lab site — at taxpayers’ expense — in Wright County. Meth carries a mandatory 86-month prison sentence, costing taxpayers $80 per day. During the recent 11-pound drug bust in Monticello, said Leander, there was a 3-year-old child in the vehicle. Although the child was not from Wright County, the county will pay for the child’s foster home placement because that’s where the arrest happened.

Children are innocent victims in the meth web.

“It just infuriates me,” said Leander, as he told of children living in a chicken coop because their meth-addicted parents were evicted from their home. “Why would someone subject their children to that kind of life?”

In 2002 and 2003, there were 86 children found at residences where meth was seized or labs found. In 2004, 51 kids were present during a meth-related bust; 29 of those were present where meth was found and five of those were living where a lab was located. “I have teachers and day-care workers ask me what I should be looking for,” said Leander.

If children miss school for about a five-day stretch, it could be an indicator that the parents are either doing meth or crashing from the after-effects and they are unable to get their children to school. Other signs include children who come to school with a “cat box” or urine smell and poor nutrition.

Susan M.A. Larson
22 February 2006

http://www.hometownsource.com/2006/February/22methepidemic.html
 

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