Recovering addicts tell task force to use tougher anti-drug tactics

CARSON CITY -- Recovering addicts have urged the governor's task force on Nevada's methamphetamine crisis to push for stronger and more graphic education programs in schools to prevent young people from ever trying the drug.

The panel also was told Thursday that tough, mandatory treatment programs and jail terms even for those facing their first conviction are needed to drive home the anti-drug message.

Jamee Fox of Winnemucca, who started using meth when she was 16, said she completed drug court but had a relapse that sent her to prison for 10 months.

"I was never motivated to get clean," she said. "I was forced. Prison forced me to get clean."

Fox urged much stronger education programs for young people.

"They need to see the dirty side of methamphetamine as soon as they hit high school," she said, adding that keeping users in jail a week or two doesn't work.

Dee Worth of Las Vegas, who cleaned up after 15 years of using, also works with a drug recovery program -- a residential program she says saved her. She said that program taught her about her addiction and also how to make changes in her life to cure the issues that were driving her to use meth.

Worth agreed with increasing jail time for first offenders, saying, "Any less and they'll go back out there and do it again."

She said addicts have to be clean long enough for their minds to clear, then have to go into mandatory treatment programs.

Matt Lowry of Carson City, who began using meth at age 16, said what finally convinced him was his deteriorating physical condition.

"I remember looking in the mirror when I got out of the shower and seeing nothing but a skeleton and stepping on a scale being 6'2" and 115 pounds," he said. "My primary motivation was fear -- of death."

Lowry said education should also involve parents.

"A lot of parents allow their kids to drink -- even smoke pot with them," he said. "You need to crack down harder on parenting."

The task force, headed by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, has been charged with preparing a statewide plan to deal with the meth crisis. Law enforcement officials say meth accounts for the majority of their drug cases in most parts of the state.