Anti-meth coalition will make a difference

Judging by the first informational meeting Tuesday evening, Partnership Carson City's effort to combat the methamphetamine plague is going to have immediate results.

Another session is offered at 6 tonight at Carson High School, and the third will be 6 p.m. Monday at Eagle Valley Middle School.

The meetings are aimed at parents, who can find out the dangers to children of methamphetamine use and meth labs, signs and symptoms of drug abuse and a lode of other useful information.

What members of the Partnership Carson City coalition found out Tuesday was that many residents already are intimately familiar with the devastation meth can have on families, and they're ready to help drive it out of town.

Several people talked with attention-getting emotion about overcoming their own problems. Others clearly suspect there is drug abuse going on behind their backs and wanted to know how to get support - from police or counselors or both.

The result: People who need help got in touch with people who can provide help.

Partnership Carson City is moving ahead on several fronts. The three school meetings are part of the educational campaign. At the same time, law enforcement is gearing up to increase its vigilance. Counseling and treatment programs, already doing extensive work through the court system, are looking at ways to help people before they get arrested. New laws are being researched that will help businesses and landlords deal with employees and tenants.

This effort involves dozens of community leaders, and it's going to grow with each step. Lyon, Douglas, Storey and Washoe counties are beginning their own campaigns. The meth scourge developed in Northern Nevada over many years, and it will take years to wipe it out.

The reality is that it must be addressed one person at a time, one family at a time. And that's how its success will be measured, as well.