Eradication of meth use aim of Rotary

Over several years, several community committees were formed to try to get a handle on controlling the rampant methamphetamine abuse problem that has plagued the Bay Area for a decade or more. Former State Representative Mike Lehman assembled and ran a number of meetings in 1996. In early 1998, the then-new publisher of The World newspaper, Greg Stevens, called and ran a group of meetings to work toward the same end, only to find out after several meetings that Mike Lehman had covered much of the same ground before. In early 1999, Coos Bay Chief of Police Chuck Knight responded to instructions from city government to launch a methamphetamine abuse task force. Stevens folded his committee into Knight's new group and several new community meetings were held.

Repetition between committees

These meetings were held at Coos Bay City Hall in 1999. Knight soon found that the City's committee was going over the same ground as had the two earlier groups.

Lehman, Knight and Stevens began meeting informally as a threesome to share experiences and frustration. "One thing we found was that people attending the meth meetings had a tendency to want to broaden the focus," Stevens says. "Some would want to tackle the problem of addiction, per se ... to any drug, to alcohol, smoking and even gambling." "Others would see enforcement as the key. Others would see education as most important. Still others would say that treatment and rehabilitation resources were what should be focused upon," he said. "Over the course of several months of meeting, we decided the ideal entity to take ownership of the meth problem would be a group the members of which comprised a broad cross-section of the business and professional community."

"Rotary came to mind immediately"

"Rotary came to mind immediately," Stevens said. Lehman, Stevens and Knight made a presentation to the Coos Bay - North Bend Rotary Club in early 2000. Stevens and Knight are also members of the club. "The members were appalled to learn the fact about methamphetamine, how it's a different kind of drug, related to all kinds of other crimes including burglary and spousal and child abuse, and is a tremendous drain on the medical resources of our community," Stevens said.

One very positive result of the presentation to the Rotary Club was the inspiration of relatively new Rotarian David Darling, CEO of St. Catherine's Residence and Nursing Center in North Bend. Dave volunteered to provide the support of St. Catherine's in providing administrative assistance, possible space for location of an office and help in obtaining grants to fund the executive director or administrator for a standing community body that would focus on and coordinate community-wide activities to combat methamphetamine abuse in the Bay Area.

At about this time, Darling was appointed co-chairman of his Rotary Club's Methamphetamine Abuse Committee for the 2000-2001 Rotary Year. Bill Grile, president of the club for the 2000-2001 Rotary year, committed Rotary's resources to support the efforts of Darling, Knight, Lehman and Stevens in coming up with an action plan. While concurrently working on grant options in ongoing steering committee meetings, the meth "Gang of Four" concluded that any community-wide effort would not be successful until the community at large understood the magnitude of the meth problem in the area.

Hope to gain Bay Area support

"We had this vision from that old movie where something aired on a well-watched TV news broadcast and people went to their windows and yelled out, " I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more," Stevens remembers. "That's what we hoped for from residents of the Bay Area."

The group conceived the idea for a panel presentation of local experts who would describe in no-holds barred terms the meth problem in Coos County, sponsored by the four principals' businesses and the Rotary Club.

Knight, Lehman, Darling and Stevens targeted experts from all aspects of the meth problem, and asked them to make presentations on meth from their particular areas of expertise. Enforcement, the courts, parole and probation, education, social services and medical, share a success story from residents within one Bay Area neighborhood where through new cooperation and persistence, they were able to rid their street of a known meth house. Chief Knight arranged for use of the Coos Bay City Council Chambers for the presentation and taping on government access channel 14 to air a videotaped program to run frequently over a three-week period following the January 25 panel presentation. Viewers and others were invited to call St. Catherine's to sign up to attend an open community meeting on February 15 to suggest ideas and action plans arranged along four lines: Methamphetamine: Not in our neighborhoods, not at work, not in our schools and not in our community. Not anymore!

Rotary Club President Bill Grile has pledged that Rotarians will work on various project committees that are produced from the February 15 event. Incoming President Debra K. Roth has pledged that committee goals for Rotary during her year will align with work that needs to be done to combat the hidden and costly plague of methamphetamine abuse in the Bay Area.

"Rotary stepped up to the plate to all but eradicate polio from the planet some years ago," Stevens said. "We who have worked on this project here for some time are certain that Rotary will be part of the solution regarding meth abuse ... right here and right now."