Post by Okwes on Jun 16, 2006 11:01:37 GMT -5
Meth Sucks (addiction)
www.freenewmexican.com/news/44901.html
Meth Takes a Toll on Indian Reservations
By MARY CLARE JALONICK | Associated Press
June 12, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) - Leah Fyten believes every family on her South Dakota
reservation has been affected by methamphetamine use. The drug has torn
apart these families, led to increases in crime and bumped mortality
rates. And now, the director of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Housing
Authority says, it's affecting the reservation's already desperate
housing situation.
Housing is not only ruined by meth labs, which are highly poisonous and
often difficult to spot, but also by the destructive habits that often
accompany drug use. The housing authority on the Flandreau reservation
has spent countless dollars fixing up holes in the walls, broken
windows, ruined appliances and other damage wrought by the violent
habits of drug users, Fyten said.
"We have a small budget that decreases every year and families are
growing," she said. "Housing gets worse every year. And to try to repair
houses that are damaged by alcohol and drug abuse puts a strain on your
budget."
Last year, Fyten's reservation recruited Jay Barton to help alleviate
the problem. Barton, an Oklahoma police officer who also works for the
National American Indian Housing Council, is traveling around the
country teaching Indian housing officials what the drug does and how to
spot it. Fyten and others say the council's seminars are breaking
through in communities that have so far ignored and denied the problem,
helping reservations lessen meth's collateral damage.
Barton likes to say he is shocking his students out of complacency.
"The response has been tremendous," he said. "Especially with the
funding cuts that tribes have received, this is really important."
Barton teaches his students all about the drug - its effects, its
origins, its market and its chemistry. He shows them pictures of users
with their teeth rotting out and tells them about the drug's poisonous
effect on children who come anywhere near it.
Statistics on Indian meth use are scarce, but an administration survey
found in 2004 that almost 2 percent of the American Indian population
was using meth. Robert McSwain, deputy director of the Indian Health
Service, told a congressional panel earlier this month that the rate of
Indians using meth appears to have dramatically increased in the past
five years.
This poses a major problem for states and Indian reservations, Barton
said, as some states have passed laws that essentially punish property
owners for meth contamination. Some landlords - including Indian housing
authorities - have been forced to pay for cleanup of meth labs, which
can cost thousands of dollars.
In addition, few states have published standards for cleanup. Congress
is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal
guidelines, as there is still some confusion about the effects of
chemicals involved in producing the drug.
Because it is often up to the reservations to pick up the work and also
the tab, and because most of these reservations have dramatic housing
shortages, Barton said there is a critical need for education about
meth.
Indian housing has been a problem for decades. According to a 2003
survey, an estimated 200,000 housing units are needed immediately in
Indian country and approximately 90,000 Indian families are homeless or
"under-housed."
"If we can make them aware of the costs and also the people that are
abusing meth, then hopefully we can cut down on the costs," Barton said.
His seminars have led to at least one drug bust in Juneau, Alaska, where
a maintenance worker who had attended a seminar identified a meth lab in
his hotel.
Ron Peltier, director of the Turtle Mountain Housing Authority in North
Dakota, said he hopes Barton, who gave a seminar there in early May,
will be able to similarly help his reservation.
"We have a lot of workers who are unaware of how meth labs look, and we
have a feeling that some of our units are being used," Peltier said. "We
hear a lot of rumors. But when we go there, we don't know what to look
for."
Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, says
training people to spot the drug is paramount because meth is "cutting
into the kinship we have as Navajo people."
"If you can't catch them there's no way to treat them," he said.
Despite their success, federal cuts to Indian programs have threatened
Barton's seminars. He conducted about 50 last year, but he said fewer
are scheduled in 2006 because of less federal money allocated for the
National American Indian Housing Council, a quasi-government
organization. After that, Barton said, organizers will have to come up
with some sort of alternative.
The meth problem in Indian country has shown few signs of slowing,
however. At the congressional hearing earlier this year, McSwain said
the situation could be described in a single word: "crisis."
"I think what we are seeing now is that if communities don't take action
it's going to get a whole lot worse," said Fyten. "It's very sad and
it's very scary. People have to wake up. There's a lot of people that
don't understand meth and how to detect it."
---
On the Net:
National American Indian Housing Council: naihc.net/
Indian Health Service: www.ihs.gov/
www.freenewmexican.com/news/44901.html
Meth Takes a Toll on Indian Reservations
By MARY CLARE JALONICK | Associated Press
June 12, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) - Leah Fyten believes every family on her South Dakota
reservation has been affected by methamphetamine use. The drug has torn
apart these families, led to increases in crime and bumped mortality
rates. And now, the director of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Housing
Authority says, it's affecting the reservation's already desperate
housing situation.
Housing is not only ruined by meth labs, which are highly poisonous and
often difficult to spot, but also by the destructive habits that often
accompany drug use. The housing authority on the Flandreau reservation
has spent countless dollars fixing up holes in the walls, broken
windows, ruined appliances and other damage wrought by the violent
habits of drug users, Fyten said.
"We have a small budget that decreases every year and families are
growing," she said. "Housing gets worse every year. And to try to repair
houses that are damaged by alcohol and drug abuse puts a strain on your
budget."
Last year, Fyten's reservation recruited Jay Barton to help alleviate
the problem. Barton, an Oklahoma police officer who also works for the
National American Indian Housing Council, is traveling around the
country teaching Indian housing officials what the drug does and how to
spot it. Fyten and others say the council's seminars are breaking
through in communities that have so far ignored and denied the problem,
helping reservations lessen meth's collateral damage.
Barton likes to say he is shocking his students out of complacency.
"The response has been tremendous," he said. "Especially with the
funding cuts that tribes have received, this is really important."
Barton teaches his students all about the drug - its effects, its
origins, its market and its chemistry. He shows them pictures of users
with their teeth rotting out and tells them about the drug's poisonous
effect on children who come anywhere near it.
Statistics on Indian meth use are scarce, but an administration survey
found in 2004 that almost 2 percent of the American Indian population
was using meth. Robert McSwain, deputy director of the Indian Health
Service, told a congressional panel earlier this month that the rate of
Indians using meth appears to have dramatically increased in the past
five years.
This poses a major problem for states and Indian reservations, Barton
said, as some states have passed laws that essentially punish property
owners for meth contamination. Some landlords - including Indian housing
authorities - have been forced to pay for cleanup of meth labs, which
can cost thousands of dollars.
In addition, few states have published standards for cleanup. Congress
is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal
guidelines, as there is still some confusion about the effects of
chemicals involved in producing the drug.
Because it is often up to the reservations to pick up the work and also
the tab, and because most of these reservations have dramatic housing
shortages, Barton said there is a critical need for education about
meth.
Indian housing has been a problem for decades. According to a 2003
survey, an estimated 200,000 housing units are needed immediately in
Indian country and approximately 90,000 Indian families are homeless or
"under-housed."
"If we can make them aware of the costs and also the people that are
abusing meth, then hopefully we can cut down on the costs," Barton said.
His seminars have led to at least one drug bust in Juneau, Alaska, where
a maintenance worker who had attended a seminar identified a meth lab in
his hotel.
Ron Peltier, director of the Turtle Mountain Housing Authority in North
Dakota, said he hopes Barton, who gave a seminar there in early May,
will be able to similarly help his reservation.
"We have a lot of workers who are unaware of how meth labs look, and we
have a feeling that some of our units are being used," Peltier said. "We
hear a lot of rumors. But when we go there, we don't know what to look
for."
Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, says
training people to spot the drug is paramount because meth is "cutting
into the kinship we have as Navajo people."
"If you can't catch them there's no way to treat them," he said.
Despite their success, federal cuts to Indian programs have threatened
Barton's seminars. He conducted about 50 last year, but he said fewer
are scheduled in 2006 because of less federal money allocated for the
National American Indian Housing Council, a quasi-government
organization. After that, Barton said, organizers will have to come up
with some sort of alternative.
The meth problem in Indian country has shown few signs of slowing,
however. At the congressional hearing earlier this year, McSwain said
the situation could be described in a single word: "crisis."
"I think what we are seeing now is that if communities don't take action
it's going to get a whole lot worse," said Fyten. "It's very sad and
it's very scary. People have to wake up. There's a lot of people that
don't understand meth and how to detect it."
---
On the Net:
National American Indian Housing Council: naihc.net/
Indian Health Service: www.ihs.gov/