Mething up Dine children

McDonald-Lonetree says impact of drug will be felt for generations

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Twenty-five percent or more of the children in Tuba City have been exposed to methamphetamine, some through the use and sale of meth in the schools.

Public Safety Chairperson Hope MacDonald-LoneTree, in testimony to be presented Wednesday to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs regarding methamphetamine in Indian Country, refers to the award-winning documentary " 'G' Methamphetamine on the Navajo Nation," and research by Dr. Thomas J. Drouhard of Tuba City Regional Health Care Corp.

In addition to finding that one-quarter of Tuba City's children were exposed to meth, Drouhard also found that unlike most illegal drugs whose users tend to be majority male, half the meth users were female. Drouhard said this has an immediate consequence on the next generation, especially when the users are pregnant or mothers of young children.

Meth use also correlates directly with a dramatic increase in child abuse and violence, according to MacDonald-LoneTree.

"With only about 30 officers available at any given time to respond to calls on our reservation, which is the size of West Virginia, and very limited detention facilities," she said, "we have almost no ability to crack down on meth traffickers, much less on meth users who have engaged in criminal activity, including domestic violence or child abuse, where it is critically important to separate the perpetrator from the victim."

With unemployment on the Navajo Nation at more than 40 percent and generally limited economic activity, MacDonald-LoneTree said, "we must look to the federal government to honor its treaty obligations and its responsibility to the first citizens of this great nation and provide adequate funding to address this crisis."

The bottom line, she said, is that in order to address the growing crisis, funding increases for Indian Country public safety, health care, education and housing must substantially exceed the rate of inflation currently 3.4 percent, with the medical rate from 8-12 percent.

The Navajo Nation has been receiving only about 12 percent of Bureau of Indian Affairs public safety funds, though the 2000 Census showed it had one-third of the national on-reservation Indian population, she said.

MacDonald-LoneTree testified before the Senate committee on Valentine's Day regarding the lack of safe and adequate detention facilities in Indian Country.

In her testimony approved Monday by the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, MacDonald-LoneTree said that without proper funding the Navajo Nation cannot implement the first prong of the Drug Enforcement Administration's strategy for addressing the meth crisis.

The DEA strategy includes three elements:

       Enforcement, through various interdiction efforts, and dismantling meth trafficking operations and organizations;

       Community engagement and prevention, including engaging schools, churches, chapter houses, businesses and families in an effort to raise awareness to the dangers posed by meth; and

       Follow-up through treatment. Because meth has a high rate of addiction, it is not sufficient to just put traffickers in jail, it is also necessary to help those who are addicted to break the addiction and to heal.

"Unfortunately, we do not have well-developed empirical data regarding meth abuse on the Navajo Reservation," MacDonald-LoneTree said. However, anecdotal data from the medical and public safety communities, as well as Indian Health Service data, shed some light on the scope of the problem.

She said Navajo Public Safety services report a significant rise in violent, domestic and property crimes, with many of the perpetrators involved in meth use.

The research is consistent with research conducted by the National Association of Counties, which found that 87 percent of responding law enforcement agencies reported an increase in meth-related arrests starting in 2002, she said.

Of the counties surveyed, 58 percent said meth is the largest drug problem they face, compared to cocaine (19 percent), marijuana (17 percent) and heroin (3 percent). Seventeen percent of the counties said that more than half their prisoner population is due to meth-related crimes, while another 50 percent said that at least 20 percent of their inmates were in jail for such crimes.

Of those responding to the survey, 70 percent reported an increase in robberies or burglaries due to meth use, while 63 percent reported an increase in domestic violence. Also, 53 percent reported an increase in assaults and 27 percent reported an increase in identity theft.

MacDonald-LoneTree said IHS first began tracking meth encounters in 1997, when 31 were recorded. By 2005, there were more than 5,000 encounters.

"Methamphetamine use puts our children and therefore our future at risk," she said.