Things really do go from bad to worse.

Tuesday, May 01, 2001

Things really do go from bad to worse.

All it takes is drugs.

Just ask Mylon Hart, an Albert Lea parent and business owner.

It started when his oldest son reached the age of 15. Rebellious and recalcitrant, the youth constantly argued with his mother.

"We thought it was just puberty," the father said.

A year later, the parents learned their son was able to buy alcoholic beverages at liquor stores in Albert Lea and was supplying "everyone who wanted it," the father said.

After the son was arrested, the parents put him in the Fountain Lake treatment center. When he was released and back home again, things didn’t change.

Then, the father found a half-pound of marijuana in his son’s car. The father poured gasoline on the marijuana and burned it in the presence of his son, who denied the marijuana was his.

"A friend of his came over and said it was is and actually asked me to pay for it," the father said. "I told him to get the hell out of my house."

Finally, the son hit bottom. Police came to the family’s home and searched it. The son was taken away and charged with second-degree felony drug possession. The drug: cocaine and the son was addicted to it. Only his first offense, the youth was sentenced to a minimum of four years in prison.

The sad tale was relayed by the father before a large crowd in the Ellis Middle School auditorium Monday night.

The Mower County Chemical Health Coalition sponsored the program. Earlier Monday, a similar program was held at Grand Meadow Public Schools.

The father led the program before an audience filled with restless preteens and teen-agers. As soon as the father began speaking and candidly telling of his own family’s ordeal with a drug-addicted son, the audience grew silent and attentive.

The focus of the program was the growth of methamphetamine use and distribution in Mower County.

The program attracted people directly related to the investigation and prosecution of crimes such as Tom Stiehm, senior detective for the Austin Police Department, and Patrick Oman, Mower County attorney, among others.

Terese Amazi, Mower County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy, participated in a question-and-answer session following presentations by Lenny Walker and Dick Ripley.

The pair of recently retired law enforcement officers have extensive experience in narcotics investigations. Walker helped law enforcement break up two of the state’s largest meth labs when he worked undercover to infiltrate a motorcycle gang at Zumbro Falls in the 1980s. Ripley was a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration specializing in uncovering drug production and sales.

The tone of the program changed after parent Hart concluded his keynote address. Walker and Ripley were greeted by a more interactive audience. When Walker asked whether anyone in the auditorium favored legalizing the sale of marijuana, hands went up. When Walker asked the teens why they favored the legalization, they could give no reason.

The pair of retired law enforcement officers showed a depth of knowledge as they examined drugs, their affects and symptoms of drug use and abuse.

For a smattering of parents in the audience, the message was sobering.

According to Walker, more than 50 percent of high school seniors use illicit drugs and one in four admit using in the last 30 days. Another one in 20 high school students admitted using marijuana on a daily basis, while a survey of eighth-graders showed they use it at least monthly. In addition, school nurses regularly dispense doctor-ordered behavior adjustment drugs such as Ritalin.

While meth use is increasing because of new technologies that allow its manufacture to be made more easily and the availability of its ingredients, Walker told the audience the war on drugs is society’s to win or lose.

"You don’t see dead ones," he said of drug-users. "They can’t come back and talk to you about doing drugs, can they?"

How can a community fight back? Again Walker had the best advice.

"If you don’t take a stand against drugs in your school or your community, nobody else will," he said. "Drug users can only take over your school or your community if you let them."