Meth presentation focuses on ways to help

A dark-haired woman lies on a stretcher in a Medford hospital thrashing violently.

Straight out of a horror movie, she screams “Give me my brain! … Help me! Please God!” and writhes as if possessed by demons.

These are no demons. The woman has overdosed on methamphetamine.

Since taping the video years ago that played Thursday night at Umpqua Community College, Dr. Jack Stump — who has lectured about meth for 14 years — has used it and others like it to show the drastic effects the drug has on people.

“It changes the chemistry of your brain,” Stump, now a consulting physician at the Southwest Washington Medical Center, told an audience of several hundred at Jacoby Auditorium. “You don’t get high unless you change the chemistry of your brain. For some individuals, that change in the chemistry in the brain remains permanent.”

Whereas videos like the one Stump showed for the Douglas County Methamphetamine Task Force presentation used to leave audiences feeling shocked and helpless, those fighting meth now hope to leave people with a sense of duty to put an end to the drug’s use.

“This is really a call to arms,” Douglas County Sheriff Chris Brown said.

Those speaking Thursday night, including County Commissioners Doug Robertson and Joe Laurance, called on community members to get involved.

From individuals, who can work to stop enabling anyone who uses the drug around them, to a community, which can find some way to raise local, sustainable funds for prevention tactics.

“We have to keep strong treatment programs in our community,” Stump said, explaining that it’s cheaper to head off the problem in the forefront than it is to deal with the effects of continued drug use, from crime to higher insurance rates.

Community members can help by putting an end to an addictive behavior in their homes that children might later imitate.

Teachers can help by taking an interest in a student heading in the wrong direction. Employers can test for drugs, then offer a policy that allows for a second chance.

Brown said people still tend to think of meth as just a drug problem. But that’s not the case.

“Meth is not a drug problem,” he said. “Meth is a robbery problem, a spouse abuse problem, a child abuse problem … an environmental problem, a work-force problem. Meth is an everything problem.”

Showing another video clip of the woman with the dark hair, this time the woman is sober, watching herself scream like a banshee. She recalls how her friends told her to try the drug just once, that it wouldn’t affect her life.

More than a decade later, she found herself in an emergency room in front of Stump’s video recorder.

Now in recovery, she tells Stump how getting clean on a rigorous treatment program was harder than she ever imagined. But then, she offers a glimmer of hope.

“As I kept doing it and kept doing it, it was easier,” she said. “As long as I made everything more important than the drugs and alcohol, then it became easier.”



• You can reach reporter Chelsea Duncan at 957-4246 or by e-mail at cduncan@newsreview.info.

Top 10 ways to make an impact on methamphetamine use: • Talk to your children, your co-workers and your friends. • Become a mentor for at-risk youth. • Vote for people and plans that support drug prevention/treatment. • Write elected officials. • Participate in the Douglas County Meth Task Force. • Make a donation to organizations supporting families dealing with addiction or to the meth task force. • Employ people who are completing treatment. • Recognize early warning signs. • Get involved; create a community that cares. • Don’t start. If you do, get help. Source: Douglas County Methamphetamine Task Force, 957-0101.