Wednesday, June 29, 2005

This is meth:

Options for help lag behind increase in use

Audry Olmsted El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

SECOND OF THREE PARTS

According to local officials, methamphetamine use is on the rise in Socorro County and is affecting people at a younger and younger age, but where is the help?

Esther Losa, chief juvenile probation/parole officer with the state Children, Youth and Families Department in Socorro County, said the use of methamphetamine is a big problem with the children they work with, mainly between the ages of 15 and 17.

"Our kids are seriously addicted to meth," she said.

According to random drug tests performed by juvenile probation over a period of three months, results show that in February, 7 percent tested positive for meth, in March, 9 percent tested positive, and 6 percent tested positive for the drug in April. Losa said this percentage includes some of the same children each month.

Losa said there are keys things parents need to look for to give them clues as to whether their child is using meth.

She said sudden changes in behavior are a hint, and other signs include weight loss and poor hygiene.

"They don't take care of themselves at all, "she said. "They're up all night and sleep all day."

She said they might also be fixated on taking things apart.

Losa said parents might find items in their children's rooms including glass pipes, foil containers, portable propane burners and very small baggies.

She said the department can sit down with parents and help them to come up with an intervention plan for their children

"We're here to help the parents," she said.

Losa said the aim is more to reintegrate children into society, rather than shut them away in juvenile detention and punish them.

"We believe that a child should remain in the community and get their needs met and become productive members of society," she said. "We create an umbrella for them of services so they can continue to live a drug-free lifestyle."

But, she cautioned, people should be aware that juvenile probation is not going to mess around with young offenders, and the agency takes those addicted to meth very seriously.

Losa said there are several programs available to young addicts including Community Corrections, a follow-up, intensive monitoring program provided through Socorro Mental Health.

There is also Family Functional Therapy, provided through the department.

There are treatment programs throughout the state such as Desert Hills in Albuquerque, Mesilla Valley Hospital in Las Cruces and The Point in Santa Theresa, that juvenile probation utilizes to help treat young addicts.

Losa said the department really wants to put a focus on catching the people that are selling the drugs to the children.

"Kids are gullible. They listen to their adult peers," Losa said.

In the more recent past, people have been known to dip marijuana joints into meth when it is in its raw form, and then give it to children, she said.

She said state and city police have been very helpful in aiding juvenile probation to catch the Socorro youth abusing the drug.

"The Socorro police have been very committed to helping us," Losa said. "I really have a lot of respect for the beat officers in what they are trying to do to help our kids."

Ernest Pargas, a city councilor who is president of Socorro County Options, Prevention & Education, said that according to results of a New Mexico Risk and Resiliency Survey administered to high school students in the school district, 16 percent admitted to using meth in the last 12 months. There is a margin of error for the results that say the results could be as low as 11 percent or as high as 24 percent.

Pargas said these numbers are by no means 100 percent accurate, but serve as a tool for SCOPE at least to see where there education and awareness focus needs to be.

According to a 2001 survey, 25 percent of the students admitted to using marijuana in the last 12 months.

"Do people just stay with pot or do they graduate?" asked Pargas.

Camille Scielzi, SCOPE coordinator, said that number seemed a little high, but "What they're doing to themselves is damaging to them forever."

Pargas said the goal of SCOPE is to raise the age at which children are initiated into using drugs and reverse the trend of drug use starting at a younger age.

He said that school has been shown to have the biggest influence on children.

Scielzi said children deal with peer pressure from their peers and that parents need to sit down with their children and talk to them about the dangers of drugs so they won't give in to that pressure.

Pargas said SCOPE does coordinate educational awareness and substance abuse programs for the young and old, including a recent methamphetamine class put on by State Police for the community.

Scielzi said that through the research SCOPE has performed, they have found that addiction awareness needs to start sooner, as soon as in elementary school, to possibly deter preteens and young teens from using drugs.

Pargas agreed with what other officials have said in the past, that there is a lack of local inpatient treatment programs people can go to for care.

The SCOPE president said that although awareness is good, it is going to take the cooperation of several entities to end drug addiction.

"You're not going to see a big change right away," he said. "You're not going to get rid of it overnight."

He said it is going to get the city, county and state working together with enforcement to bring about the slow change.

"People need to team up and stop being political. If we partner up and work together, we'll accomplish a lot more faster," he said.

Socorro Police Chief Joel Haley said that as the police learn more about the drug, they are becoming smarter about how to deal with it.

He said that although drug education in schools can be effective, it is sometimes more effective to have day-to-day contact with the students, hence school resource officers who divide their time among the Socorro schools.

"Getting kids to stop in the hall and talk about things going on is sometimes more effective than sitting them down in the auditorium," he said.

He said officers do go into the classroom for instructional sessions and also work with SCOPE to educate students about the dangers of drugs.

"We hope that having the contact with the kids every day is having some effect," he said.

"We're not ever going to stop working on this issue," Haley said, and on the flipside, "We'll always have an issue to work on."

aolmsted@dchieftain.com

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