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Metro dean appointed to Denver drug commission
By Amy Woodward
awoodwa5@mscd.edu

When Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper appointed 25 members to a newly formed drug task force, he asked Sandra Haynes, dean of Metro’s Criminal Justice Department, to join.

“I am very excited to be involved in something that has the potential to help Denver in a significant manner,” Haynes said.

The Denver Drug Strategy Commission held a brief overview meeting on Jan. 25 to discuss strategies and issues it will be working to address in the next 18 months.

A letter to the new commission’s members from the Denver Office of Drug Strategy states: “This is going to be a productive year as we move forward with this participative community-wide effort to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for substance abuse prevention, intervention, treatment, transition and recovery and implement ongoing efforts through the Office of Drug Strategy to reduce substance abuse and misuse in the City & County of Denver.”

Haynes hopes to take part in the commission’s prevention and data-evaluation subcommittee, which will figure drug and abuse rates, because it is important to know what the commission has and what they can do to prevent the spread of drug use, she said. She wants to focus specifically on how drug epidemics spread, including the spread of methamphetamine through drug trafficking. Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant typically manufactured using makeshift labs and ingredients found in commercial products.

The Community Epidemiology Work Group, a research group that supplies information on the patterns of drug abuse for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, reports on its website that methamphetamine use is more common in Western states than in the rest of the country but is slowly spreading across the U.S. into the South and Midwest.

Narconon Southern California, a drug and addiction treatment rehabilitation center, reports on its website that 54 kilograms of methamphetamine have been seized thus far in Colorado, and some surrounding states have reported seizures of up to 206.2 kilograms.

Most smuggling happens not only at the border but also at other ports of entry that are notorious in Texas and Arizona, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website.

Transportation of methamphetamine at or around the U.S.-Mexico border has increased more than 75 percent between 2002 and 2004. In 2005, a total of 2,148.6 kilograms of methamphetamine was seized in the United States.

The Denver Drug Strategy Commission does not have all of the details yet about its plans to confront the issues of drug abuse in Denver, but it plans to look at all aspects of the drug problem, said Jamie Van Leeuwen, chairman for the commission.

“We will be looking at underage drinking, meth and narcotics and how it relates to prevention, intervention and treatment,” he said.