Guest column: Meth problem affects all of us, not just users
By TOM BERGIN For The Daily Astorian
I’ll never forget one little girl. She was just 5 years old when we knocked on her door to arrest her mother for meth for the third time.
I was working undercover with the Inter-agency Narcotics Task Force and looked the part – scraggly hair, beard, unkempt, looking like someone you would never want your kids around.
“I know you,” the little girl said, reaching her arms toward me. “Can I have a hug?”
I picked her up and packed her around as the team searched the house. She was starving, for food and for attention. She was emaciated and covered with lice. The whole apartment complex reeked of human urine and mold. Lord only knows what type of traumatic experiences had visited her life.
Children services responded, as they had so many times before, and removed that little girl. When I gave her to the caseworker it was like the world had been lifted from her shoulders as she smiled and waved goodbye. That was truly a humbling moment in my life.
Last I heard, that beautiful little girl was sent to live with relatives in another state and doing just fine. I still see her mother around. She has had a hard life and it shows.
Methamphetamine strips you of any beauty and dignity you ever possessed. Meth has rotted her teeth to nonexistence and destroyed her appearance. But she survives, hopefully managing to stay clean hour to hour, let alone day to day.
Meth and crime
The signs of our meth problem are everywhere; just take a look around. Nearly 80 percent of crimes the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office responds to involves meth one way or another. About 80 percent of the people in our jail are involved with meth.
Their crimes affect you: identity theft, check fraud, burglaries and car break-ins, anything to get the money to buy more meth. It is a vicious cycle that never seems to end. More money equals more meth, more meth requires more money.
Meth crimes tend to be more violent. Paranoia runs hand-in-hand with this drug. It causes users to think they are in a worse situation than they actually are, causing shootings, stabbings or assaults that you normally don’t see with other drugs or alcohol.
You may not use meth, but someone you know probably does. Believe me, you cannot comprehend the number of people who have gone down this road. They come from every walk of life.
Meth is a wicked, wicked drug. It’s the meanest drug I know. You can try it just once and be hooked for the rest of your life. Doctors have told me that using meth just once permanently alters your brain. It makes you paranoid, volatile and unpredictable. It destroys your body, your mind and your soul.
Jail incidents
Methamphetamine has made law enforcement’s job much more difficult. In a recent analysis of our county jail, the National Sheriffs’ Association found we have a higher number of incidents between inmates and between inmates and corrections staff than we should for a jail our size.
Our medical costs at the jail have increased immensely with more inmates being lodged with meth-related illnesses. We’ve had to place one to three inmates a week into the hospital to clear infections from meth, at a minimum cost of $700 a person.
It’s not uncommon for us to take inmates to the hospital only to find out that their bodies are so consumed with infections that we cannot take them back to jail. We can only release them into the community.
More women arrested
Sadly, we are also seeing more and more women in our jail. About one-third of people entering treatment in Oregon report using methamphetamine, with a disproportionate number of women entering treatment for meth, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
This disturbs me as a law enforcement officer and frightens me as a husband and a father. It shows meth is tearing the moral fabric of our families. Kids go home to meth addicts. They have no stability in their lives.
A primary reason the state takes children away from their parents is drug abuse, leading to neglect or child abuse. I believe people are a product of their environment. If you are surrounded by good, you have a better chance for a good life. These kids’ lives are being destroyed at a very young age and it truly saddens me.
Breaking patterns
There is no single solution to the meth problem. But having adequate jail space is a critical component. I have talked to many individuals who have been hooked on meth that say it took them a year or more of being locked up before they even would consider trying to quit. Studies show this to be true and that without this detox period the individual has a far greater chance of going right back to their friends and environment where they feel comfortable. Let’s face it, birds of a feather flock together, and sometimes it is necessary to break these patterns through incarceration.
I am a big believer in treatment and caring for our fellow man, but with meth it sometimes takes the harsher action of incarceration. In 2003 in Oregon, the top three treatment referral sources for methamphetamine users were: 25.6 percent probation, 14.5 percent courts and 13.4 percent self. Meth users are less likely to complete treatment than other drug addicts, according to the state.
You must have jail beds available as a consequence to motivate offenders to stay off drugs and go through and successfully complete their treatment. If sanctions are not imposed or carried through, then the success rate immensely diminishes.
Drug Court is another very good opportunity that works with the offender and helps one to become sober. But again, without sanctions, by which I mean the ability for the judge to impose a jail sentence for bad decisions, the program is just not as effective.
I would like to believe that we could just wave a magic wand and this epidemic would go away, but that is just not the case. Drugs have always been a problem in our society, and always will. It takes all of us working together to resolve this issue. Does it sound hopeless? Maybe, but I’m not going to give up and I would hope you will not either. Remembering that little girl almost every day drives it home for me.
Please join me at the Meth Summit from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Liberty Theater in Astoria.
Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin has worked in law enforcement in Clatsop County for 19 years and has been with the Sheriff’s office since 1992. He was the narcotics K-9 detective, supervisor of the Inter-Agency Narcotic Team and chief deputy before becoming the sheriff in January 2005. He is married with two daughters.
The story about the little girl hurts me so much. Considering I was one of those little girls, I never was put in a long term foster home though. But through many hardships and problems of my own, I have a very good life. Although my drug addicted mother is still on drugs 21 years later and is currently in jail. I hope this states drug problem will go away forever, it has done so much damage in my young life. I am lucky I survived.
