PORT ANGELES — State Attorney General Rob McKenna will focus on illegal use of prescription drugs and methamphetamine during a public meeting in the Clallam County Courthouse on Monday.
McKenna will hear comments from members of the public and from the Clallam County Community Meth Action Team at 2 p.m. in the county commissioners’ meeting room (160), located on the ground floor of the courthouse at 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Prior to that meeting, McKenna will speak to the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce at noon in the second-floor meeting room above the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
At 2 p.m., McKenna will discuss methamphetamine use and prescription drug abuse at the one-hour meeting hosted by County Commissioner Mike Chapman and Sheriff Bill Benedict, who are co-chairmen of the county’s meth action team.
Community outreach
“This continues our community outreach and education to help educate the community on the dangers of meth,” Chapman said, “and we want to hear what the attorney general has to say about meth activity around the state, and how we can support him in his fight against meth.”
Benedict said that abuse of prescription narcotic pain-killers such as Oxycotin, Vicodin and Percocet “is every bit or as great a problem as meth,” especially among teens, even those as young as middle-school-aged.
Young people take the pills from their parents’ supplies, or buy them, Benedict said.
“There are small criminal enterprises centered around the sale of these drugs,” he said.
“It’s our belief that most are coming from the Tacoma or Seattle area.”
Since they are prescription drugs, “there isn’t the fear” that illegal drugs might inspire, Benedict said, but Oxycotin, for instance, “is extremely addictive.”
Since it is synthesized from an opium derivative, it is “like artificial heroin,” Benedict said.
Methamphetamine use isn’t particularly widespread in Clallam County, Benedict said, but the effect on users is dramatic.
“The problem with meth is that it targets a small group of population but for those who use it, the outcome is that it almost always leads to antisocial behavior, criminal activity and incarceration, and very often results in some kind of psychiatric treatment,” Benedict said.
Action team focus
The meth action team focuses on prevention, education and treatment, with a community emphasis, Chapman said.
It receives $4,000 annually in federal funds, and during the last two years, has put those funds into sponsoring Child Protective Services foster parent recruiting.
McKenna is serving his second term as the state’s 17th attorney general.
In 2005, he launched Operation: Allied Against Meth, and has made presentations about it to nearly 5,000 students from more than 60 schools across the state.
Monday’s visit will be his second meeting with the Clallam County Community Meth Action Team.
________
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.