OCTOBER 1,2007
Smoke Signals 5
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More than 100 came to Grand Ronde to share ideas that are working to combat use of highly addictive drug
Photo by Ron Karten
Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association
and author of Oregon's meth lab chemical control laws, presented the
conference wrap-up, describing the wide-ranging solutions available when
communities, social service and police agencies work together.
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
To deal with the local meth epi
demic, the Confederated Tribes
of Grand Ronde is doing several
things right, including reaching out
to partners in other Tribal commu
nities and beyond them as well.
More than 100 people attended
and almost two dozen speakers
were fea
tured during
the two
day, Tribe
sponsored conference
"Tools for
Healing
and Meth
Prevention"
held Sept.
13-14 at
Spirit Mountain Casino.
"We set it up as a conference to
get information to the community
and the partners we work with,"
Dave Fullerton, director of Social
Services for the Tribe and confer
ence coordinator, said.
"It's a full-phase approach that
deals with enforcement, treat
ment, prevention and recovery. If
you leave any of these out, there
will be a lapse in the program. The
big thing now is to bring people to
gether to learn from each other."
Of the groups that need to be
on board to make a "full-phase"
approach work, schools are "the
resistance point," said Mike Staf
ford, a member of the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commission and
staff member for the Governor's
Meth Task Force.
"(Schools) say it's not a problem,
and when you consider that the
average person using meth is a
seventh-grade dropout, you can see
why the schools would say that,"
Stafford said.
The preventioneducation com
ponent has to be taught in grade
schools. Hardcore meth users are
already gone by middle school,
he said.
"We know meth users as young as
8 years old," Stafford said.
At every stage, the battles against
meth abuse have run up against
limitations.
"They're getting their children
back the same day they get out,"
said Trish Jordan, board member
and program coordinator for Portland-based
Red Lodge Transition
Services, which serves Indian wom
en leaving incarceration for meth
use. "They can't even take care of
themselves (at that point)."
Recovery is also hampered be
cause many meth addiction pro
grams allow from three to six
months for recovery when experi
ence is showing that meth users
need to be clean for six to nine
months before treatment will have
a chance of success.
Another recovery limitation in
volves Veterans Affairs hospitals,
which won't take a patient while
he's using, said Ray Lewallen, op
erations manager for the Soldier
Reintegration Team serving mostly
Oregon National Guard patients.
He attended the conference to look
for empty beds, like some of those
at the Tribe's six-person Meth
Transition
Center.
"Hope
fully, the
beds here
will help,"
Lewallen
said.
Connec
tions, or the
lack of them,
among the
different participants in the battle
against illicit methamphetamine
use ranked high on the list of needs
that the conference addressed.
"The reality," said Joe Martineau
(Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Fond
du Lac Reservation), Post Treat
ment Services coordinator for the
Tribe, "is we're all connected."
The conference directed the dis
cussion toward resources available
from involved agencies and assess
ments about how those resources
are being used.
To make a change, said Detective
Mike Holsapple, lead investigator
of the Polk County Interagency
Narcotics Team, "all the components
of detection, education and commu
nity" must be working together.
Addiction, once treated as a dis
crete group of acute (one-time) prob
lems today is being approached as a
chronic (never-ending) problem.
This treatment change requires
researchers to fight risk factors
(broken fami
lies, negative
experiences,
historical
trauma) and
provide pro
tective factors
(reinvesting in
culture).
Risk factors
are harder to
root out. "It's
easier to mobi
lize people to
protect than to
eliminate risk
factors," said
keynote speaker Dr. Dale Walker,
dfrector of the Center for Ameri
can Indian Health, Education and
Research at Oregon Health and
Science University.
National Native American gang
specialist Chris Grant provided
input on the Grand Ronde area's
fight with gangs. He described
the connection between gangs in
a community and drugs. He also
led a training session for the Spirit
Mountain Casino Security Depart
ment. (For more on Grant, see the
Smoke Signals profile in the June
1, 2007, issue).
The conference featured dozens of
experts from the fields of education,
treatment, law enforcement and
community, including a number of
former meth addicts. The conference
offered key
note speakers
and break-out
sessions focus
ing on the best
practices in
each of these
areas.
Meth, ac
cording to the
Office of Na
tional Drug
Control Policy,
is a highly ad
dictive stimu
lant that can
be injected,
snorted, smoked or swallowed.
Meth users feel a short, intense
"rush" when the drug is initially
taken. The immediate effects of
meth include increased activity and
decreased appetite.
However, long-term meth abuse
can cause addiction, anxiety, in
somnia, mood disturbances and
violent behavior. Additionally, psy
chotic symptoms such as paranoia,
hallucinations and delusions (such
as the sensation of bugs crawling
under the user's skin) can occur.
The psychotic symptoms can last
for months or years after meth use
has ended, the federal agency wrote
on its Web page.
Of all American subgroups, Indi
ans show the highest percentage in
meth abuse, Walker said, with 74
percent of Indian Country problems
stemming from it. At the same
time, he said, the Grand Ronde
approach to fighting meth use is a
good model for others to use.
The Tribe has modeled "full
phase" meth fighting tools as part
of its effort, according to Walker,
by entering into statewide efforts,
reaching out and partnering; part
nering within the Tribe as well,
spreading the word on meth edu
cation throughout the Tribe; and
showing its willingness to work
with non-Tribal support systems
within the community.
"We've been putting it out there,"
said Fullerton, "that we want to
work together. We're not going to
resolve it alone. We're modeling
the behavior that we're looking for
(throughout the community)."
The conference was largely
funded by the Administration for
Native Americans. A $598,000,
two-year grant also funded the
start-up of the Meth Transition
House and Post Treatment Ser
vices program. D
"We know meth users as
young as 8 years old."
Mike Stafford,
Member of the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commission
and Governor 's Meth Task Force
NOTONMYUEZ!