Officials Seek Clergy’S Help Fighting Meth

Law enforcement agencies are losing the battle against methamphetamine and have turned to the clergy for some help.

“It’s ruining families,” said Sgt. George Gow, head of the Sundance Drug Task Force. “It’s ruining little kids. Kids are getting contaminated.

“That’s where we need help from you folks,” he told a gathering of the clergy at Sandpoint City Hall on Tuesday.

Mayor Paul Graves, a former minister, called the meeting in a first step to galvanize the community to fight the growing influx of drug laboratories and meth addicts.

“I’ve got a bully pulpit, and I want to use it in calling the community together,” he told the group.

The two dozen clergymen and women watched a video on clandestine meth labs and listened to law enforcement officials describe the problem - including gun-wielding youths, volatile and dangerous kitchen laboratories and toxic waste being dumped around the community.

An Oregon man now in the Bonner County Jail following a meth lab bust last summer on Lakeshore Drive is a suspect in two killings in Oregon. In one case, drug dealers allegedly shot their meth “cook,” who accidentally had burned down the house, Gow said.

In 1996, the drug task force busted only one lab. Last year, it busted 25, among them a Lakeshore house where a suspect was killed in a shootout with officers. The task force recovered 21 pounds of the drug at the house.

“So far this year, we’re up to 14,” Gow said. “It’s not something you want your kids around or anyone you know.”

Sandpoint Police Chief Bill Kice said incarceration doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to drug users and dealers.

“They’ll recycle right back into the environment,” Kice said. “It seems the best programs that are working in society are church-based. They’re religion-based.”

Assembly of God Pastor Mike Walsh said he knows a 37-year-old man who had been a drug user for 27 years.

“When I first met him, he was a scary guy to be around,” Walsh said. “He gave his life to the Lord, and he’s now clean. He has a license and a job.”

Kice said 46 percent of the foster children in Bonner County come from homes with a methamphetamine problem.

Deborah Baptist, of the Bonner County Homeless Task Force, can attest to the growing influence of drugs in the area. Nearly all the homeless families helped by the task force over the past two years have been affected by the meth problem in some way, she said.

Kice encouraged the clergy to ask their congregations to look for signs of clandestine labs in their neighborhoods, such as frequent short-term visitors at night.

The task force also welcomes tips. The phone number is (208) 263-5274.

Tuesday’s meeting ended with a prayer. That, Pastor Bill Kneppen said, may be the most powerful tool.

“God can make a difference when all other resources come up short,” he said.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

INFORMATION

Meeting

The community is invited to a free presentation on the methamphetamine problem at 7 p.m. May 23 in the Panida Theater.

The Idaho State Patrol will provide information on how to identify meth labs and how to help stop the problem. The meeting is being sponsored by Bonner General Hospital, Human Connection and Communities that Care.