It seems impossible that given all the warnings and media attention surrounding methamphetamine, some kids still don’t grasp what the drug can do to them.
Once we’re finished shaking our heads and wondering aloud how that could be possible, we should use the information as a catalyst to continue drilling that message home to our children and anyone else who needs to hear it again – and again. Because whether we know someone using this dangerous and illegal drug, we’re all paying for it one way or another.
Last week’s annual county Youth Meth Summit drew hundreds of youth and parents to the Everett Events Center to learn how to fight the increasingly popular drug. Matt Lundgren, a 21-year-old who gave up meth and cocaine last year, made the point that many youth still don’t get it when it comes to meth.
“The more you know about what it does, the more likely kids are going to stay away,” Lundgren said. He told a Herald reporter that attending such a conference earlier in his life might have made a difference.
Some parents who read Friday’s Herald article, “Teens see firsthand the dangers of meth,” may have breathed a sigh of relief that they won’t ever have to deal with the drug. They may be relaxing too soon. Even if you never know someone who decides to try the drug, our communities suffer the consequences of those who fail to say no.
On Thursday, readers learned that two nonprofit agencies in Snohomish County will be footing the bill for meth cleanups on their property.
The City of Arlington is looking at spending several thousand dollars to clean up a thrift shop located on property it owns. Someone allegedly broke into the building and set up camp in the basement. Compass Health, which is facing funding problems like many other mental health agencies, might have to pay $50,000 for the cleanup of one of its apartment buildings in Arlington following a meth lab explosion days before Christmas. Officials are hopeful insurance will cover the costs.
Also in December, officials discovered a meth lab on a nature preserve near Gold Bar owned by the Cascade Land Conservancy. The price tag? Anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000. Certainly not how that organization planned to spend its money.
Attempts to offer solutions to this problem would be simplistic. But summits, such as the one this county offers youth annually now, are a good place to start educating our kids and chipping away at the denial to which some of us have been clinging.
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