First Ever Meth Conference Held In Salt Lake City

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First Ever Meth Conference Held In Salt Lake City

August 19th, 2005 @ 9:45am
Jed Boal Reporting

For years Utah has struggled to cope with the heavy toll of methamphetamine in our communities. Now, experts call it the number one illegal drug problem in the nation. A conference in Salt Lake is trying to targeting the problem.

The idea behind the first-ever national conference on Methamphetamine is to gather prevention, treatment and law enforcement together to form alliances. Meth is the first drug epidemic that started in rural areas and spread to the city. It's everybody's problem now.


The scourge of meth will not leave our streets, in fact it's spreading across the country. Salt Lake County alone estimates 40-thousand adults need meth treatment, and there are likely twice that number of users.

Pat Fleming, Salt Lake County Division of Substance Abuse: "This is the biggest problem we're facing in the United States of America."

And there's new evidence presented at the conference that meth causes brain damage, in addition to other severe health problems.

Pat Fleming, Salt Lake County Division of Substance Abuse: "We haven't seen this before with other drugs. This is poison to the brain, pure and simple."

Luciano Colonna heads up the Harm Reduction Project, which organized the conference. He says prevention and education are the keys to the problem and communities need more public money for treatment.

Luciano Colonna, Harm Reduction Project: "Our governments tend to focus on the supply side, but we really need to decrease the demand for methamphetamine."

Users who want treatment today would have to wait on a list, and treatment can take more than a year.

Luciano Colonna, Harm Reduction Project: "We can treat it, but we just don't have the money to treat it."

Meth today is more potent and more users are injecting the drug rather than snorting it.

Luciano Colonna, Harm Reduction Project: "We fear that we're going to see increases in HIV and hepatitis C and other injection related health risks in rural communities, and they won't be ready for it."

The Bush administration yesterday announced new efforts to battle meth abuse, including more training for law enforcement and grant money for treatment of addicts.

Tina Duncan, Salt Lake County Division of Substance Abuse: "There's no picture of the meth user, or any drug user, it's in all populations."

The most important message they want to get across is DON'T USE METH! It destroys thousands of lives in our communities. Next month, the state will have new survey numbers of meth use among adults and among children.

Link
 
Salt Lake Tribune
20 August 2005

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2958363

Rocky calls war on drugs 'a disaster'
By Michael Westley
The Salt Lake Tribune

The war on drugs has been an "absolute unmitigated failure - a disaster in this country." Strong words spoken by Salt Lake City's Mayor Rocky Anderson during a panel discussion Friday night at the Harm Reduction Conference.

In the two hours following Anderson's opening remarks, civic and community leaders from around the country echoed his sentiments, calling for greater outreach, education and prevention for drug abuse. "We want to prevent, when we can, the abuse of all substances and for those who choose to use, reduce the harm," Anderson said. The second part of his quote, the notion which, in some form, accepts drug use and looks to minimize its risks, is what the Harm Reduction Conference is all about. The first annual conference, held at the Salt Lake City Marriott on Friday and today, focuses on methamphetamine, HIV and hepatitis.

Among those on the panel were Dave Purchase, of the North American Syringe Exchange Network, whose civic involvement in Seattle brought about the first needle exchange program in the United States, and Dave Nadalmann, of the Drug Policy Alliance, who advocates more practical approaches to drug reform.

"Most of the information we hear about drugs comes from people who got in trouble with them," Purchase said. Those who use drugs recreationally and manage healthy and successful lives don't register on the scale of public perception, "and that forms our opinions as well."

Many of the panelists fought to correct misconceptions born in the 20-year campaign against drug abuse. "There is no such thing as a meth baby or a crack baby," said Karen Buchi of the University of Utah. "These are drug-impacted children." To see pictures of children labeled as meth babies is terribly unfair, she said.

Judge Dennis Fuchs, of Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court, upheld the need for sentencing that allows the time for proper treatment, and Salt Lake City prosecutor Sim Gill said the success of drug treatment depends on users gaining access to immediate, individual attention. Others on the panel included Judge Arthur Bennett, Patrick Fleming, Deborah Small, Corinne Carey and Steve Jenison.
 
I dont understand why this is a such a big problem.. Like, i have never seen nor heard of any doing meth in my area. (nj) the only people that i have known to do it went either went way out west or even on the west coast.
 
FareWellToFashion said:
I dont understand why this is a such a big problem.. Like, i have never seen nor heard of any doing meth in my area. (nj) the only people that i have known to do it went either went way out west or even on the west coast.
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It's HUGE, everywhere from the midwest all the way out to Cali. The problem is in small towns, where it can be manufactured instead of having to be imported like cocaine or heroin. Small town epedimics are everywhere. There's actually a show on tomorrow on A&E on it at 9 CT.
 
If the government hadn't lied to everyone about the supposed dangers of marijuana use, maybe more people today would believe them when they say meth really is harmful?
 
Crazeee said:
... meth causes brain damage, in addition to other severe health problems.
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That means the FDA has approved a drug to treat ADHD, ADD and narcolepsy that causes brain damage and other severe health problems.
 
Re: Re: First Ever Meth Conference Held In Salt Lake City

redeemer said:
That means the FDA has approved a drug to treat ADHD, ADD and narcolepsy that causes brain damage and other severe health problems.
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I believe taking 20 mg of Adderall for a PROVEN (not just some kid who says he has ADHD, and the doc gives it out) medical condition and smoking ice are a little different...:\
 
Desoxyn is the name of the perscription meth. But yes, I do imagine a difference in taking small doses then smoking/injecting, but I can't really say. =)
 
haha, why not throw out scientology too ? or pretty much everything that needs to be removed from the earth.

Although, keeping with the topic: I think it would be an extremely difficult task to elimate meth, they'd probably only get it down to the point where people still use it, but it's availbility is not sky high. Just makes meth users pay more.
 
Xihias said:
But yes, I do imagine a difference in taking small doses then smoking/injecting, but I can't really say. =)
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True, but like I quoted, what they said was: "... meth causes brain damage ..." which doesn't say anything about the method of delivery.
 
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