Meth: One Year Later (Parts 1-4)

Meth: One Year Later

(PART 1) It is often said what a difference a year can make.  In this four-part series, we will explore this concept as it pertains to efforts that Burnett County made to tackle meth.    Over a year ago the alarm was sounded highlighting the impact and destruction meth was having in the county.  The effort was started by a non-profit organization called Wild About Education. The head of this foundation Dave Shoenecker, who owns Wild Waters Sports Bar and Restaurant in Danbury, had seen firsthand the terrible effects meth was having on the community.  Due to Dave’s concern the campaign began.   We have had many successes and challenges in the past year.  There is still much to do.  We take this opportunity to thank the Burnett County community.  Without them, none of this would have been possible.   Below there is a timeline of some of the efforts that have been made to educate, inform, and combat the methamphetamine epidemic.    

• April - First meeting to find out what was happening in Burnett County regarding methamphetamine use and what we could do.  Burnett County Board proclaimed June meth awareness month.  Drug Impairment Training for Education Professionals held.
• May – First meeting for the Regional Meth effort in Hayward.  The launch of the kNOw Meth Burnett County Facebook page.
• June – First Meth Town Hall in Siren.  Almost 200 in attendance.  Hiding in Plain Sight Teenage Mock Bedroom debut.  Over 1,000 people have stopped and visited in the last year.  Choose Life over Meth Billboard erected.  We were busy with print ads, newspaper series, flyers, billboards, presentations and yard signs.  
• July – We expanded the campaign from one billboard to two with the addition of “Do the math, no meth” on State Highway 35 north.  
• August – First Meth Diversion Planning meeting.  First meeting about prevention curriculum for 5th-grade students.  Distributed yard signs at National Night Out community event.  Presented at Webster Teacher In-service.  Set up Hiding in Plain Sight room for the Burnett County Agricultural Society Fair and Webster School Resource Fair.  
• September – Presented at Grantsburg Teacher In-service.  Set up the Hiding in Plain Sight for Shell Lake School Parent Teacher Conferences. 
• October - Held a Meth Town Hall in both Grantsburg and Webster.  Set up Hiding in Plain Sight room for Grantsburg, Siren, and Spooner Parent Teacher Conferences.  
• November -  Northwest Wisconsin kNOw Meth Stakeholders Meth Forum in Rice Lake.  Presented at Siren/Webster Rotary.  Held a Youth Meth Town Hall at Siren School District.
• December -  Presented at Grantsburg High School’s Health Class on both alcohol and drug awareness.  Began teaching prevention to Siren 5^th grade students.
• January – The Burnett County Meth Diversion Program started.  The first public service announcement was posted.  The 537-METH tip line was expanded from Barron County Sheriff’s Department, to include Burnett County.    Presented at Siren Teacher In-service.   Brian Cole presented his meth prevention message at Siren, Webster, and Grantsburg schools.  Started Grantsburg and Webster 5^th grade drug prevention curriculum.  
• February -  Mino Bimaadiziwin Drug Awareness Conference hosted by St. Croix Tribal Center. Over 300 in attendance.  Trained AODA Community Coalition of Douglas County on how to present the Hiding in Plain Sight and how to use to create advocates in the community.  
• March – Brian Cole presented at the Northwoods, Shell Lake, and Spooner schools.  Presented at Grantsburg Rotary.   We did Road Side Clean-up, sharps, and propane tank Awareness Flyers throughout the county and social media.
• April – Regional Meth Summit was held at Heart Wood Resort in Trego. There were over 300 in attendance.  Of those 300, 33 counties, 8 tribes, and 15 elected officials were represented.   Completed the Northwest Wisconsin kNOw Meth Stakeholder’s Forum Summary and Recommendations.   We got the news that we were invited by Senator Harsdorf to present the Hiding in Plain Sight Room at the Capital in May.  

Again, these are some of the highlights from the last year.  The overall goal is to keep the momentum and efforts going to create a safer and healthy community for our youth.

Meth: One Year Later – What is Meth Costing Our Communities? The Ripple Effect.

(PART 2) -- There is no doubt that with meth use there is a cost and consequence for the individual using it.  What is frequently overlooked, however, is that the costs and consequences from their use are not exclusive to the user.  The impact on families, friends and communities make up what we refer to as the Ripple Effect.  Within this Ripple Effect we can measure certain costs on agencies and organizations, for instance, property crimes.  What this means is that this article can only reflect those measurable impact costs. Thus, the price of something like the emotional impact to a child or the family is not an instance that can have a dollar amount assigned to it. 

Measurable Impact Costs:

• April 2017: 27 kids in placement; 17 are due to meth; 8 in relative care and the rest are in county licensed foster care. 
• August 2016 –March 2017: 19 kids were follicle tested; of these 19, 13 tested positive for meth exposure, due to parental use; 10 of those 13 are in out of home placement; the remainder are with a protective parent.  NOTE: Follicle tests cost $2,300.00 each. 
• 2016 to date:  33 meth specific cases have been received; 20 of these cases are open for child protective service investigations. This represents a 60% screen in rate.  NOTE: The state average is 30 to 35.
• Total placement cost of these children averages $70,000 a month.  NOTE: That is $840,000 a year. 
• 40% of all ongoing Child Protective Service cases are meth related. 
• In 2016 there were 41 meth arrests in Burnett County.
• There was $439,000 reported in property crimes in Burnett County.
• There were 15.12 grams seized for 2016. NOTE: That is about one pound.
• In 2016 there were 298 treatment days for residential placement.  An increase of 67% from the previous year.  
• In 2016, 356 calls were made to the crisis line; of those, 50% were related to substance abuse; 15% of those cases were methamphetamine.

Meth: One Year Later – Prevention and Intervention – What is that?

(PART 3) -- Burnett County has done a lot with prevention and intervention in the past year.  When working in prevention, we follow the effective model of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF).  The SPF uses the evidence based approach of: Assessment, Capacity Building, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation; with Sustainability and Cultural Competence addressed at every step.  One important piece to the prevention programs we implement is to build the protective factors in youths’ lives, in order to reverse or reduce risk factors.   Intervention is a professionally directed, education process resulting in some type of educational opportunity or a treatment service.

In regards to prevention we look at the program that was implemented in this last year within the 5^th grade classrooms of all three school districts in Burnett County. We spent time with these students to work on building their protective factors, through enhancing their self esteem and problem solving skills to protect them from risks; thus reducing the risk factors, which can lead to problem situations. The 3 meth town halls, were essential in the prevention initiatives put forth in the county, as it provided the opportunity for the citizens of the county to see what efforts have been put together to help combat the beast that is meth, let the community members ask important questions, and educate on the dangers of meth, the impact of meth, and the resources available in Burnett County. In November, the Burnet County Prevention Coalition, along with our colleagues in Barron, Polk, Rusk, and Washburn Counties, put on a Meth Stakeholders Forum; to make a call to action. From this, a summary report with recommendations was created.  Through the northwest regional effort, a Meth Summit was held, which had 33 counties, 8 tribal communities, and 15 elected officials represented, including the Wisconsin State Attorney General Brad Schimel. There were almost 300 people in attendance.  We also were invited to speak at teacher in services, have billboards throughout the county, flyers and brochures of all the services that we provide, and many presentations to parents and community explaining the drug trends in the county while focusing on meth.

One example of intervention is the Burnett County Meth Diversion Program.  This program is designed to assist the first/second meth offenders or those whom have their children removed from their home or at risk of it.  This is done by offering treatment as well as monitoring sobriety.  This measure of support is at times what the offender needs to pull themselves up from the addiction.

Burnett County is unique as it has the only Meth Diversion program.   Also unique is the three levels of case management that is available to those in Burnett County.  For those struggling and looking for some assistance and support they can contact the HHS Department and ask for the Meth Case Manager.  Drug Court is also an option for those who are far into their addiction and have criminal charges.

We are often asked what people can do to help our organizations. At the very least, one can simply support the initiatives that are being put forth by organizations and agencies.  This could be putting yard signs on display at your home, to voicing your support throughout the communities, to becoming foster parents for those young ones who have had to be removed from dire situations. Working together we are stronger.

Meth: One Year Later: Recovery

(PART 4) -- Where do we go now?  What are the next steps in the battle against methamphetamine?  While there has been notable progress, there is still much to do.   We will be convening our meth work group to assess future goals.  If anyone would like to be a part of these efforts please contact the Restorative Justice office.  Community involvement is vital.  

When working with meth we often focus on the negative.  Once becoming addicted to meth it is difficult to stop and is often impossible to do alone.  Meth addiction is tough to conquer and there may be relapse.   These people will need support throughout the treatment process.   There are people making a difference and overcoming meth addiction. The following is the testimony of a woman that had the courage to battle meth head on.  It addresses the struggles and success that comes with recovery and healing.  

Hello, everyone.  I’m going to tell you all about my path with addiction and recovery. This is not an easy story for me to share with you all. I’m very ashamed at some of the things I’m about to tell you.

I come from a good family. My father was absent due to his struggle with alcoholism. When I was a young teenager I had tendencies to party a lot more than other kids. This spilled over to adulthood.  I worked hard, sometimes I had two jobs to care for my kids and make sure they had everything they needed or to go on vacation. I was very proud of this.   

On the weekends when I did go out I drank more than most women and found myself at after parties. This is where I first tried meth. And I liked it. I didn’t take it home; I didn’t do it again or seek it out in way. A year later the same thing happened. This time I was at a hotel with some girlfriends for the weekend. Most of whom are hardworking family women like myself. There was meth there that night. This said to me that it was okay because these women were just using it recreationally they were not junkies! It must not be as bad as I’ve heard.  IT got out of hand very fast and I was scared so I moved away and started a new life as a single parent this time. I stayed sober for four years.

At work one day I hurt my back. I was in a lot of pain so I missed a lot of work. I found out I had scoliosis with bulging and herniated disks. I got severely depressed and I stopped working. I started drinking more often, which is when I was reintroduced to meth. It was the answer to all my problems, my depression seemed to be miraculously lifted from me. I could finally get up and get treatment for my back. I was prescribed an anti-depressant and medication for pain. I thought FINALLY, THANK GOD things are getting better.

Very quickly I wanted more and when I didn’t have any my depression set in deep and I felt suicidal, like everyone would be better off if I was gone so they wouldn’t have to worry anymore. I lost my car, my apartment and everything I had. I stole the things I needed and was charged with things I don’t remember doing. I got in fights and was in and out of jail. At 39 years old, I found myself with a criminal record. 

I started doing things to make sure people didn’t think I was using. Like making sure I slept and ate everyday so I never looked messed up or too thin, I never looked like some pictures you will see here today.   One day I went to a house I had I been to before and saw a friend of mine there who was higher than I’d ever seen anyone in my life. When everyone else was leaving he asked me to stay because he was afraid. Forty minutes later I was breaking into the bathroom when he would not come out. I had to pull him out and saw he had clearly overdosed. He was not breathing. I tried CPR but it didn’t work so I ran for help, there was no working phone and I did not think to call 911 since my phone was disconnected. When the neighbors came I went and hid. I was so afraid, more than I’d ever been in my life. He had died and I knew it. When they found me, I had a warrant so they took me to jail. 

I sat there for quite a while and eventually was charged with possession of methamphetamine. Drug and alcohol court was my out of prison. I very quickly failed at this despite all that had happened and how much I loved my kids. This drug had taken everything I ever was and brought me to my knees. So, I went back to jail.  This time when I got out I went to my first A.A meeting. I only went because Drug and Alcohol Court made me go plus they had put an ankle monitor on me. I cried in the parking lot with my youngest daughter sitting next to me making sure I went in. I could take the road to right and run OR face my fears of what I had become. It was really hard; I was scared but I went in. I was welcomed there and no one judged me they all understood what had happened to me and they cared. I did this three times a week which is required. Then I found myself going to one every day and three times on Sunday on my own. I also saw a therapist, did some outpatient treatment, A.O.D.A counseling, group therapy for relapse patients on a weekly basis which is required by Drug Court plus community service. 

This long term treatment program gave me the tools, resources and recovery support system I needed to stay sober and set me up for a life of sobriety.  Since then I graduated Drug Court, paid off all my fines and paid back all my debts to the community, I got my G.E.D, I’m on the board of directors for the Alano club and still attend AA and NA meetings weekly. I volunteer for Restorative Justice and help with the adolescent A.O.D.A as a volunteer counselor, which brings me here today. The biggest barrier is my criminal record. It prevents me from getting a decent job or a job I really want and I know I would be good at. 

The biggest thing that helped me was being treated like I was a PERSON, going to support meetings every week and positive reinforcement. Facing the community after what I had become but not being put down was a big deal for me. In early recovery If anyone would have told me I was a lost cause I would have agreed with them and may never have been here today.  Meth still whispers to me in the night it plays tricks on me and tells me I need it when I’m bored, having a bad day or the scariest is it calls to me when I’m doing just fine. I’m here to tell you this drug is different than all others. I worked painfully hard to get where I am now but I made it and I’m alive because today I choose life over Meth.