PORT ANGELES — Martin Shaughnessy thought this first meeting would, in his words, be on “how to get the junkies out of downtown.”
But the gathering of 35 people yielded a far wider discussion of the drug problem all around the city.
The Port Angeles Citizens Action Network, aka PA CAN, held its inaugural forum Thursday night at The Landing mall conference room.
Leading the meeting was Angie Gooding, a Stevens Middle School teacher active with the Revitalize Port Angeles group, a leader in the drive for votes in Outside magazine’s “Best Town Ever” contest. Port Angeles came in second nationwide.
Revitalize Port Angeles wanted to use the contest momentum to tackle other issues, and Thursday’s meeting was one idea.
Even at the middle school level, “I see my families affected by drugs,” Gooding said.
Illegal drug use has been on the increase on the North Olympic Peninsula, especially in Clallam County, in recent years, law enforcement officials have said.
Clallam County’s 13 opiate-related deaths in 2013 was the highest per capita opiate-related death rate in the state, Dr. Tom Locke, then public health officer for both North Olympic Peninsula counties, said last year.
PA CAN “is a togetherness effort,” Gooding said, looking around the circle at the mix of people including Shaughnessy, a volunteer who works with addicts; Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher; two Klallam Counseling drug-treatment counselors; and two who identified themselves as recovering addicts wanting to “keep it real.”
This meeting was held “to listen to what the various organizations are doing, and what they see is working and not working,” added Gooding.
In what turned into a combination town hall meeting and consciousness-raising circle, she got an earful.
Shaughnessy works with The Answer for Youth, a nonprofit provider of support to young, homeless and at-risk men and women.
The majority suffered abuse, neglect and trauma when they were children, he said, and among them are those who use hard drugs to self-medicate.
Addiction is not a lack of “will power,” Shaughnessy said; it’s an attempt to relieve pain.
And all too often, the young addict’s parents abused drugs themselves.
Jayme Doane, a chemical dependency counselor at Klallam Counseling Services in Port Angeles, said she sees teenagers on up to senior citizens.
“I have a caseload of 15-year-olds who are using heroin and methamphetamine,” she added.
Many get help, but “recidivism is huge. I see people who have been through treatment five or six times.”
If the seventh time sticks, then it was all worth it, Doane said.
“Some people think that’s a waste of money. It’s a human life, not a waste of money,” she said.
Jude Anderson, Clallam County Health and Human Services treatment coordinator, brought brochures listing 12 local treatment centers.
“I had no idea there was going to be such a fabulous turnout,” Anderson added to explain why she didn’t have enough for everyone.
There is good treatment available, she said, but gaps still exist.
People go to jail for various offenses; it’s a detox center as they endure withdrawal from narcotics.
“I work with heroin and meth addicts every single day,” said Julia Keegan, the Clallam County jail’s registered nurse.
Too often, they are released into the community, where their dealers and their drug-using peer groups are, so they start up again.
Then there are the teenagers and preteens who see drugs around their homes and neighborhoods.
The city needs safe places where kids — especially the ones who don’t fit into the popular crowd — can go after school, Shaughnessy said.
“I’m inclined to put my money on the Boys & Girls Club,” he said, referring to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, which have units at 2620 S. Francis St. in Port Angeles and 400 W. Fir St. in Sequim.
Chief Gallagher likewise acknowledged the heroin problem in his city. He once served a drug warrant at a house where pretty much all the neighbors knew the dealer in their midst.
They came out of their houses, he recalled, to applaud the bust.
Yet “cops are not going to solve the problem,” he said.
“There are a whole lot more drug people than drug cops.”
A woman who described herself as a recovering addict made a suggestion: People like me could visit Port Angeles High School and tell their stories.
This, she said, would be more effective than having the police, teachers and counselors talking about the evils of drugs.
Shaughnessy and others called for a community-spirited approach.
Kids living in single-parent households, kids who seem lost — we need to take an interest in them.
“I don’t know if it takes a village,” he said, “but it takes more than a single mom.”
This first PA CAN forum didn’t produce concrete answers or plans, except for that of another gathering.
The date and time will be posted on the Port Angeles Citizens Action Network’s Facebook page and in the Peninsula Daily News.
After 90 minutes of discussion, Gooding expressed her optimism: People spoke up and listened to one another, and “I learned a lot.”
Shaughnessy, too, was hopeful.
“This old-time idea of community — we could do that,” he said.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.