Meth

It seems like everybody is on meth now, one way or the other: as users or dissuaders. The damage to individuals, families and communities is horrendous and we will all benefit from the attention. Still, I would caution for a broader view.

It makes sense for law enforcement to focus on meth and its particular problems, but should local governments set out to design policies and programs specifically for its treatment? Probably not, given the long lead times necessary for governments to implement their ideas.

Meth is likely to race devastation through our communities and then diminish much like crack cocaine in the '80s and '90s. What will take its place? Somebody, somewhere, is experimenting with it now. We'll know its name in five or ten years.

Meanwhile, in Clatsop County in the past week there have been two fatal car crashes involving alcohol. Alcohol is legal. Alcohol abuse is socially accepted, even to the point where law enforcement is often derided for "wasting" its time "harrassing" drivers who've "just had a few beers." Alcohol is sexy. Stories of community leaders as regulars at local watering holes and of their inebriated escapades are passed around as amusing stories of hale and hearty men.

There's no way this County or any other could ever provide the broad range of treatments and sanctions needed to meet the needs and demands of individual drug and alcohol abusers. But we can do better:

• Sustained leadership campaigns that promote drug- and alcohol-free lifestyles.
  
• Keep the commitment that the Transition Center will be used to house that portion of the criminal population that actually wants to get unaddicted and get straight, people who the judges don't think need to go to jail but do need to go somewhere. Do not, as has been suggested, use some of the 30 beds as a halfway house for people coming out of prison. One thing we know is that you don't put high-risk offenders with low-risk offenders, unless you want the low-risk offenders to become high-risk.
  
• Back off on the aggressive cost-collection contemplated from Transition Center inmates/residents/guests. Lifeworks NW, the private organization that contracts to provide mental health and drug treatment services, has privately complained that the County has placed too much of an emphasis on repaying fines than, for example, on more amorphous treatment goals. How much can we really expect to get from residents/inmates? And if we can't get that, how are we going to fund the Transition Center?
  
• Expand the use of Drug Court by hiring additional probation officers and adding jail beds. The theory with drug court is that the offender comes in every Wednesday. The probation officer sits next to him. The offender reports to the judge on whether he's looked for a job, peed clean, fell back in with bad friends. If not, he's given positive reinforcement by the judge and the probation officer. If he repeatedly screws up he gets anything from a reprimand or a mild scolding, which is not unusual, to a jail sanction of between one and five days. Somewhere between five and ten jail beds are reserved for drug court; they're not empty because Judge Nelson uses them. Still, there are people with five dirty UA's (urine analyses) who aren't getting any jail time.
  
• Commit to a plan that keeps a long-term solution to the jail in Clatsop County. How does this help with subtance abuse? Sixty to 70 percent of people in jail are awaiting trial. They haven't been adjudicated so they can't be forced into a treatment plan even if one existed. One of the few support systems these people have is their family or extended family. When we lock up someone in Tillamook or St. Helens, we cut them off from those support systems. And they have difficulties communicating with their lawyers, who complain bitterly.
  
• Provide tax or land incentives that might allow for a private organization such as Serenity Lane to build an in-patient facility on the North Coast.

Fortunately, because of timber fund revenues, Clatsop County continues to have at least some options. The County strives to keep about a $1 million reserve each year as a rainy-day fund, and this is a worthy goal. There is another $2-3 million in annual timber revenues used for one-time special projects, nearly $1 million of which was spent on turning the old County Health Department into the POM (aka the Palace o'Meetings aka the Judge Guy Boyington Building), including two 42" plasma screen televisions. The POM is used for County Commissioner meetings twice a month and for not much more.

Could the money have been better and more appropriately spent? Yes. Do we sometimes need to adjust our savings plan downward to meet urgent needs? Yes. Do these decisions require hard choices on the part of County Commissioners? Yes. But as County leaders are asking some of our most vulnerable citizens to work hard, to behave responsibly, to exercise discipline, so should those leaders.