NISSWA — Methamphetamines continues to be an ongoing problem in Crow Wing County and the Lakes Area Drug Investigative Division (LADID) brought it to the forefront Thursday during a Methamphetamine Community Awareness presentation at the Nisswa Lions Community Center.
“There is more methamphetamines in Crow Wing County than ever,” said Sgt. Joe Meyer, of the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Department, and commander of the LADID, who led the presentation where about a half-dozen people attended.
Meyer said meth is most commonly used by white, blue-collar workers and unemployed people in their 20s and 30s and by youths younger than age 18. Teenage girls take the drug to lose weight. Meyer said he is starting to see 50-year-olds to 60-year-olds, who are getting out of prison, going back to meth. Either they were still taking the drug in prison, Meyer said, or they started to hang-out with their old crowd who abused meth.
Meyer said a national household survey indicates 9.6 million residents in the U.S. age 12 and older have tried meth at least once and 7 percent of high school seniors have tried meth at least once. Meyer said only 6 percent of meth addicts can kick this drug, which is the lowest recovery rate of any drug.
“I talk to a lot of meth users and they want to quit, but they can’t,” said Meyer. “If they want to quit, they have to change everything in their lives.”
Meyer said the meth in Crow Wing County comes from Mexico and is delivered via vehicle, mail or speedy delivery. Meyer said the meth labs are huge in Mexico, but labs in the county have stopped. Meyer said investigators believe the labs stopped when the Sudafed (an ingredient in meth) law went into effect that regulated how much Sudafed a person could buy each month.
Meyer said one gram of meth, which is about the size of a sugar packet, has a street value of about $150-$200.
Besides meth, Meyer said the number of people abusing prescription medications has increased, not only in the nation, but also in the county as people steal prescriptions, get them on the street or from doctors.
“There are people who’ll go to an open house and they’ll steal the owner’s prescriptions,” said Meyer. “They’ll do whatever they can to get the medications.”
Effective Thursday, Meyer said the county sheriff’s office now has a “Take it to the Box,” where people may dispose of their leftover or old prescription medications. The boxes will also be in Crosby and Breezy Point.
Marijuana also is a big problem in the county, said Meyer. To make matters worse, Meyer said today’s marijuana is much stronger than it was in the past. He said the drug went from having 1 percent of the compound of THC to 30 percent THC today.
Synthetic marijuana also is around the county. Meyer said the drug should not have the name marijuana in it as it is a different type of drug. He said it is sold as an incense and makes people extremely paranoid and violent.
Kathy Stephen, of the Pine River area, who attended the meeting, said she recently went to her friend’s son’s funeral. She said he died from meth.
“My friend knew there was something wrong with her son,” Stephen said. “And at the funeral you could tell which one of his friends were using meth too ... It’s very sad.”
Stephen asked Meyer: “If you have a child who is doing meth what can you do?”
Meyer said the No. 1 thing a parent can do is to get treatment for the child. However, he said the child, or any addict for that matter, has to want to quit.
“You can’t force them to quit,” he said. “They have to want to do it.”
Stephen said she is a substance abuse prevention specialist at Working Together Coalition in Pine River. She said the coalition works with teens in preventing drug use with three offices in Cass County.
Pam and Joe Bilek, of Nisswa, heard about the awareness meeting and attended because they wanted to learn more about meth and other drugs in the community. Pam Bilek said she was amazed at all the tools used for drugs and how people were able to hide drugs in different items, such as a beer can.
For more information, contact LADID at 829-4749 or email ladid@co.crow-wing.mn.us.
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl.
Comments (6)
Add commentThe recovery rate is actually
The recovery rate is actually much higher today then it was in the past. The 6% rate would be a high estimate for mother's who lose their children to addiction and that percentage is also increasing. Although with the percentage of inaccurate drug test results on the rise it is likely these percentages would also be distorted. When considering "federally certified" laboratories are not even being regulated. It is an interesting concept "50 to 60 year old's who are getting out of prison are going back to using" you mean they are not rehabilitated? I thought the "corrections" departments were designed to correct these problems. It is all too sad a disease like addiction has gone untreated when so many individuals go through a "correction" program as structured as prison. Apparently the tax dollars collected to pay for these inmates with such a "disgusting" disease, do not provide funding for the actual "correction" of the problem. Don't get me wrong I definately agree that meth is a problem, I also believe the "correction" efforts are displaced leaving the addict still suffering. Lets do the percentages on that. Other wise good job Working Together Coalition and their efforts in the other 3 counties, maybe we in Crow Wing County can join after we pay for our new jail.
let them
if they use meth for @7 years they are pretty sure to die soon and they know it-let them as no amount of tax money will stop them-a total waste but their choice!
And for this, everyone has to sign
forms for certain drugs, and they took out certain meds in over-the-counter allergy medications? So while making it harder for the average citizen, it all comes to naught!
all comes to naught
I wouldn't say naught, but I think the American experiment has proved time and again the prohibition is not a policy.
oh what a rush.................
So if meth is more prevelant now then ever before what has Mr. Johny Law done to step up search for........? Appearently not enough. The pressure needs to be applied to Johny to stop (scratch that) slow down the drug trafficing...and when caught the legal system needs to step it up and impose longer jail times as the access to.....will continue to grow or we will continue to bury our younger generation.
The whole drug buying prohibition
Was ridiculous overkill to start with.
They could have allowed more to be bought at one time, still requiring a signature.
I used a gun analogy right from the start. Had the same thing been done with gun purchases, it would have had all kinds of people hopping mad. But go after a cheap drug that happens to work well and saves huge $$ by keeping thousands from doctor visits? That's just fine.....
I remember when one of the
I remember when one of the political issues the goverment officials were morally struggling with, was a type of drug "reform" policy that was eventially tossed out because it lacked common sense? Some might argue and would probally still support the idea....The issue was if they put enough poison into "hardcore" drugs, like heroin, cocain, and crystal (aka crank) the chronic drug user or "hard core criminal" would start to die off rapidly and eliminate funding costs for imprisoning scum like this, but politicians could not figure out how to come up with a ratio that would kill the "bad guys" but not leathal enough to kill all the "good guys" who maybe want to endulge in "moderation" of course.