DEATH * BY * METH

This is dedicated to Travis Holappa who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered on July 25, 2004 in Northern Minnesota. This was all due to meth. I am Travis' mother and I wish to make this devastation turn into a better thing by educating and exposing the truth about meth, the dangers, and the deadly consequences it brings about to individuals and communities.

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Location: Colorado, United States

I want to do what I can to educate people about what is going on around the world with the meth problem. I want people to know about it BEFORE they even get the idea to want to try it. It is a dangerous drug and will ruin your life as well as all those who love you. I am on a mission on behalf of my only son, Travis.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Meth summut focuses on prevention, funding (Ohio)

‘It’s so seriously out of control right now’

COLUMBUS — Never before has one illegal drug had such widespread effects on society, officials said during a summit on methamphetamine abuse last week.

Representing legislative, health, farming, law enforcement and judicial professions, about 30 people came together in the state capital to discuss the impact of what is believed to be Ohio’s fastest growing drug trend in decades.

Led by Democrat Sens. Marc Dann and Kimberly Zurz, the summit focused on four areas of methamphetamine’s impact: Preventing abuse, enforcement and creating stronger penalties, treatment of abusers and the cleanup of meth labs.

“Every day we hear more and more in the news about the growing meth problem in Ohio,” Dann, who represents Ohio’s Mahoning Valley of Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, said Thursday. “This is an addiction that knows no boundaries.”

Unlike most illegal substances, addiction to methamphetamine can happen after the first use. More than two of 10 people who have tried methamphetamines — taken orally as a pill, smoked or injected — are hooked immediately and for years, according to the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Ohio’s rate of clandestine methamphetamine laboratory incidents has increased from 14 in 1999 to 286 in 2004. By May of 2005, Ohio had recorded more than 305 breakups of the dangerous makeshift cauldrons of highly flammable and hazardous chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine, according to the Ohio Drug and Alcohol Addiction Services.

In 2000, drug counseling services in Ohio treated 160 people for amphetamine addiction. In 2004, that number had jumped more than three times to 482, according to officials from the same agency.

But even this data is incomplete. Though methamphetamines have been around for years, studies on the topic are new and few.

“We have a good handle on the acute effects while it’s being cooked, but the long term effects, that’s one big question mark,” said Dr. Bob Frey of the Ohio Department of Health.

“It might be easier to say it’s not a public problem because we don’t see the numbers,” said Zurz, who represents constituents in Summit and Portage counties. “But I don’t buy that.”

In the next year, legislators said they will work to continue tracking and curtailing the sell of over-the-counter drugs used in manufacturing meth, seeking funding initiatives through state and federal grants for drug task forces and working to strengthen penalties for abusers caught in the act.

“It’s so seriously out of control right now that the threat of a fine isn’t enough right now,” Zurz said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2840 or dgreber@coxohio.com.

http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/news/stories/2006/04/30/mj043006methsummit.html

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