HEALTH OFFICIALS READY IF METHAMPHETAMINE INVADES

Public health officials in Rock and Walworth counties say they are
preparing for the arrival of methamphetamine.

"It is up and coming," said Bob Gibson, alcohol and drug abuse
specialist at the Rock County Human Services Department. "It's
something we want to be on top of.

Walworth County health and human services staff are in training about
how to handle meth addicts, said Pat Matteo, child protective service
and juvenile court intake program supervisor.

Besides dealing with the users, specialists are learning about how to
care for children from drug households.

"The drug creates such erratic behavior on the part of the parent or
on the part of the adult that it is physically dangerous for the
child" Matteo said. "They are neglected. The care-givers are in no
state to take care of them."

Rhonda Hemenway, an alcohol and drug counselor at the L.E. Phillips
Treatment Center in Chippewa Falls, has seen the ills of methamphetamine.

"The treatment is long-term," Hemenway said. "Cognitively, it takes a
long time for them to come back to normalcy. With alcohol
detoxification, within 72 hours you can work with them. With meth, it
takes three to four months before they start to learn and change
their behavior and attitude."

She said meth use in northwest Wisconsin has reached epidemic levels.
Crime rates have jumped, family and job issues are more prevalent and
domestic violence is more common, Hemenway said.

"Once somebody starts using meth, it consumes their life," Hemenway
said. "Eventually, everything that is important to them goes away."

In northwest Wisconsin, meth replaced marijuana and cocaine as the
drug of choice, Hemenway said. About half of the 44 beds in the
treatment center are routinely used for meth users, Hemenway said.

For most, methamphetamine isn't the user's first illegal drug, Gibson
said. And they usually have a reason to take drugs.

"Probably the vast majority of people who use meth are trying to
cover up some sort of unpleasantness. We as humans don't like pain,
either emotional or physical. We'll do almost anything to not feel
like that. Sometimes the cure to not feeling the pain is not worth
the ailment."

Hemenway echoed those feelings.

"Don't use it," she said. "In the short term, it's going to give them
what they're looking for.

"But in the long term, it's going to lead to a road of total destruction."