Phil Barnhart
State Representative
When working as a psychologist, I once evaluated a young man for a pre sentence report who had committed, we figured, 600 burglaries in two years to feed his methamphetamine habit. He had been arrested for three of them. During those two years the ravages of drug addiction had made him careless, and unemployable, and destroyed all his personal relationships.
Going to prison interrupted his addictive behavior, and may have saved his life. He also had seriously negative effects on 600 families when he broke into their homes and stole everything from TV sets, to family heirloom jewelry, to the rent money. It was luck alone that prevented a violent confrontation with a resident. In another way he was lucky too; he did not have signs of amphetamine psychosis, a condition that looks like schizophrenia. He also was lucky in that he was not infected with the HIV virus or hepatitis, infections that comes about by sharing needles with already infected drug users.
I remember him because he seemed so “boy next door” and he described the destruction of his life and his crimes as if they were so ordinary.
Unfortunately, they are ordinary for meth addicts.
In the last few years the “meth” crisis has gotten much worse. The Oregon State Police tell us that meth is a factor in 85 percent of property crimes and is more and more associated with identity theft and forgery. Meth manufacturing is a growth industry in Lane and Linn Counties, destroying the value of apartments and houses, and endangering the health of children and adults who live in or near them because of the contamination that occurs in the manufacturing process.
As citizens, we must work together to overcome this dangerous epidemic.
Everyone can help! Urge the retailers in your area to join the Oregon Meth Watch Program that tracks the sale of large quantities of the chemicals needed to manufacture meth. Support your pharmacist or grocer if they keep some over the counter drugs behind the counter. The meth manufacturers will shoplift what they need if they cannot buy it without detection. Learn all you can about the problem. Support drug education programs that work for our young people and drug treatment programs to help those already caught up in drug use. Report suspicious behavior to law enforcement. Above all, don’t take illegal drugs yourself.
Law enforcement alone is not enough. Our communities depend on each of us to do our part to make them safer. The solution to the drug epidemic is the end of demand for drugs. That means education, more good jobs in our economy, a sense of hope for the future in those who have none, and a keen awareness of the reality the hippies of the sixties knew, Speed Kills!
Rep. Phil Barnhart represents Central Lane and Linn Counties in the Oregon House of Representatives. He can be contacted at 541-484-5119, or email: [email protected], Formerly, he has worked as a lawyer and as a psychologist.