Oregon senators join fight on meth.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

Methamphetamine struck home in Oregon decades ago.

With the scourge of meth addiction and related crime spreading across the country, national leaders are preparing to strike back with the Combat Meth Act, a federal law co-sponsored by Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith and 10 other senators, to cut off chemical sources for meth producers and to increase enforcement and treatment.

Wyden convened a panel of state and local experts on methamphetamine Friday in Eugene to gather information and to discuss the proposed law.

Wyden admitted that proposed funding for the measure - $30 million initially - falls far short of the need, but said the bill at least will provide a base as national support for the effort grows. It also will fill gaps created when states enact their own anti-meth measures, driving meth cooks from one state to another.

Spending priorities and politics are debatable, Wyden said.

"What is not debatable is we are not going to sacrifice any more Oregon children to the meth epidemic," he said. "They don't deserve to have a life scarred by meth."

The Combat Meth Act would increase federal prosecution of meth makers, expand law enforcement training, restrict sales of chemicals used to make meth, educate owners of businesses that legally sell things used to make meth, boost efforts to help drug-affected children, and increase addiction treatment.

Seated before a table holding common household items that go into meth - cold tablets, iodine, lye, battery acid, antifreeze, road flares - the panel focused on meth's growing grip on Oregon families.

Dr. Carol Chervenak, medical director for an Albany-based agency dealing with meth-affected children, talked about a 9-year-old girl who was able to describe the meth-making process she'd seen her father repeatedly perform.

She also graphically described the beatings her father inflicted on her mother. The girl said she often skips school to care for her younger siblings, and worries that her frequent nausea, vision and hearing problems may be linked to her father's lab, Chervenak said.

"She is not the exception," Chervenak told 50 people attending the discussion.

Lane County Sheriff Russ Berger said studies show that more Oregon residents seek treatment for meth addiction, per capita, than residents of any other state. Oregon consistently ranks among the top 10 states in the number of meth labs seized annually, he said.

At the same time, resources for investigation are shrinking. For example, budget cuts dissolved the the county's Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team. Instead of busting labs, law enforcement is left to pick up the hazardous aftermath.

"We don't have a drug (investigation) team," he said. "We have a clean-up team - a group of trained officers that clean up the (waste from) meth labs that are found literally on the side of the road."

Meanwhile, he said, property crime by meth addicts climbs in rural Lane County - totaling 1,056 reported burglaries and 1,107 thefts so far this year, Berger said.

Even the good news about meth addiction treatment has a bad side, said Lucy Zamarelli, director of research and youth programs for Willamette Family Treatment Center in Eugene.

By taking a long-term approach to the myriad symptoms of recovery, treatment is improving, she said.

"We've been dealing with meth for decades," Zamarelli said. "We've got a lot of solutions. What we don't have are resources to get those solutions to people."

The state is mounting a major offensive with a 40-point plan by the governor's Methamphetamine Task Force that will be rolled out soon, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association.

"Oregon is at the forefront of the methamphetamine problem," he said. "We are also at the forefront of the solutions."

METH IMPACTS

Children: In 2002, 109 children were taken from homes in Oregon where meth labs were found. Half were under 6. Half tested positive for environmental exposure to toxic chemicals. About 85 percent of youth homelessness is directly related to meth use by the youth or the youth's family.

Crime: Drugs were involved in 25 percent of the 8,000 felony crimes prosecuted last year in Lane County. Meth accounted for 80 percent of drug crimes prosecuted. The district attorney's office is facing a fourth year of staff cuts and operates with 30 percent fewer prosecutors than 20 years ago.

Enforcement: In 2003, Lane County's narcotics enforcement team - operating at half its historic size - arrested 75 suspects for making meth in 46 labs, and filed 31 child neglect cases. The team was dissolved because of budget cuts.

Treatment: After decades of treating addicts, programs are increasingly effective. But resources to treat addicts are dwindling.