Editorial::

Facing a health crisis

Monday, Feb. 5, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

J. R. Haggerty, a spokesman for the state parole and probation division, has called methamphetamine "the scourge of the Earth."

While that may sound like an overstatement, Nevada is an unfortunate national leader in methamphetamine use. According to the latest federal statistics, 10.2 percent of Nevadans over the age of 12 have reported using methamphetamine at least once, as have 11.7 percent of high school students.

The scourge shows no sign of slowing.

In Friday's Las Vegas Sun, Abigail Goldman reported that in Clark County, parole and probation officers stepped up their drug testing, doubling it. In the last three months of 2006 they tested 2,121 felons. Officers said 550 tests were positive for illegal drugs, and of these more than 1 in 3 tested positive for methamphetamine.

Another troubling fact: Child Protective Services had to be called in 1 of every 10 methamphetamine cases because a child was in the home of the person using the drug.

Methamphetamine is so addictive that police and parole agents often see users on a revolving door - out of prison today, back tomorrow. The drug has terrible side effects - aggressiveness, paranoia and hallucinations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that users are at least twice as likely to get sexually transmitted infections and involved in hepatitis outbreaks.

As Haggerty puts it, "The meth dragon just destroys your life."

Methamphetamine has created a public health crisis and tarnished the state's quality of life. Governments need to expand the criminal justice and public health systems to keep up.

There are already 10 bill drafts in the Legislature regarding methamphetamine, and Gov. Jim Gibbons has proposed a $17 million plan to fight it. Lawmakers must make this issue a priority and, in addition to whatever is spent on the criminal justice system, they must create aggressive education and treatment programs. Ending a scourge takes more than just prisons.