Education seen as key to meth fight (Kentucky)

http://www.timesleader.net/articles/stories/public/200601/30/048T_news.html


By Jared Nelson jnelson@timesleader.net

Monday, January 30, 2006
Caldwell County Drug Endangered Children Coalition members are currently pinning their hopes on education as the first step in helping free children from toxic home environments where methamphetamine and other drugs are present.

The coalition met this month and heard from two Muhlenberg County officers active in their communities’ efforts to combat the drugs’ influence on children.

Greenville Police Chief J.W. Robertson and the Rev. Curtis McGehee, chaplain with the Muhlenberg County Sheriff’s Department, briefed the local coalition about their county’s programs.

“They’re way ahead of us,” said Sheriff Stan Hudson, one of the local coalition’s organizers.

Robertson said the Muhlenberg County coalition was formed after an initial contact by Cheyenne Albro, director of the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force.

Robertson and the county’s judge/executive sent letters to representatives of various interested or pertinent organizations asking them to attend an organizational meeting.

More than 100 people attended that meeting, the chief said, and the coalition was underway.

Keeping the public educated and informed, he added, is an important step in the fight against drugs, particularly meth.

“The general public does not know about the meth problem,” he said.

The coalition has formed subcommittees to segregate its duties, including education, with help from students in the county’s schools.

“Those students are taking a big role,” he said, citing the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) group as an example.

Students are encouraged to inform teachers, officers or other authorities if a parent or guardian is manufacturing or abusing drugs.

Middle school, Robertson said, is a good age group to target.

McGehee, who heads the coalition’s faith-based efforts, discussed some of the education and prevention activities undertaken in Muhlenberg County.

“People in the community do not realize what this is doing to our rural communities,” he said. “There’s nothing in America that we face, I don’t think, more dangerous than methamphetamine.

Robertson and McGehee advised the Caldwell County coalition to form subcommittees to handle individual aspects of the effort to protect children endangered by drugs and select a coordinator for each subcommittee formed.

Some subcommittees will focus on primary response: actual on-scene care and comfort for children removed from households where meth and/or other drugs are manufactured.

Robertson and McGehee showed the coalition Muhlenberg County’s mobile response trailer, which contains decontamination equipment, clothing, toys and supplies for such situations.

The county has not yet had to use the trailer, but it is kept stocked for whenever the need arises.

Hudson said Friday that the local coalition was also seeking to obtain a trailer, through either a direct donation or with funding assistance from the narcotics task force, and supplies to make it active.

The coalition is also concentrating on education efforts.

Members are making arrangements with the county school system to have anti-drug programs in each school: primary, elementary, middle and high.

The coalition is also working to get the county’s churches and civic groups involved.

Subcommittees are now being formed. The coalition meets quarterly; its next meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 12.