War on meth has a fighting chance

The panhandler approached shoppers in the North Side grocery store located in a solidly middle-class neighborhood. The woman showed telltale signs of meth addiction. Her teeth were rotting. Her face was broken out in the pick-at-your-skin acne unique to meth users. And in her eyes, she wore the look of utter desperation.

The only good thing to say about meth use in our community is this: Most people are outraged about it. This means the whole community can galvanize against it. Last week, Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna announced “Operation: Allied Against Meth” a collaborative program to fight the meth problem throughout Washington state.

The effort calls for increased criminal investigation and prosecution of meth-related crimes. And it calls for support of existing programs, such as Community Methamphetamine Action teams, that work on education and prevention, as well as treatment for meth addicts.

War-on-drugs campaigns have not always succeeded. This one has a fighting chance, because meth is one drug that has blurred societal boundaries. Those who would never use meth are not immune from the damaging ripple effects caused by those who do.

Meth users steal items from people’s porches, steal identities from people’s wallets, steal cash from purses in people’s offices. Meth users trash rented homes, sneak nitrogen fertilizer from farms, shoplift cough and cold medicines from drug stores, though this last action is more difficult now that meth ingredients have been moved behind pharmacy shelves.

Former war-on-drug campaigns have illustrated that scare tactics alone do not work. Yes, meth users can end up toothless, acne-ridden and panhandling for cash in supermarket parking lots. And they can die from strokes and liver and kidney damage. And meth users place into their bodies the ingredients found in starter fluid, nail polish remover and batteries.

But on the road to body and mind destruction — and it can take awhile to get there — the meth high is described as like no other. Everything is heightened, from sexual activity to listening to music. This is what makes the drug so powerful. The same power makes it destructive to innocent children, as those who have worked with recovering meth addicts know well.

“You give up caring for and feeding your kids,” said Linda Thompson, executive director of Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council’s Prevention Center. “It takes you over.”

According to the attorney general’s office, meth-using parents have helped drive the 62 percent increase in foster-parent care in the past decade, and fewer than 30 percent meth-addicted parents ever live again with their children. The damage lasts generations.

Individuals can recognize early symptoms in family and friends — inability to sleep, sensitivity to noise, weight loss and nervous physical activity, such as scratching. And individuals can sound the drumbeat for increased treatment options for meth addicts, along with stricter laws and longer prison sentences.

This is a drug problem that takes over people’s lives, families, neighborhoods and communities. It demands a multi-faceted solution that acknowledges all of these sad and destructive realities.