Reader comments
Governor unveils program to help combat meth addiction

Hey I'm impressed with your gov.on this one..Always- always- always- tell it as it really is, don't lie as people find out it isn't true and then you have no credability.good chance in the long run this program will work better than a lot of the other ones..cheers to your govnr..keep gov Ritter informed next door ok? good luck !

Another feel good idea from Gov. Nitwit. The only way to stop tweakers is to put tweakers in jail for a long, long time. First possession offense, 1 years; second, 10 years; 3 offense, life.

bsinut your idea looks good on a message board, but until you can see the irrational behavior of a meth-head, you will never understand how hard this problem is to fix. These people don't take into account jail time when they are looking for their next hit. Addiction creates irrational behavior. So to throw them in jail on the first or second offense is just plain stupid and costly to the taxpayer. But they can't have a free pass by just enrolling in rehab. There should be heavy fines that can be reduced by staying clean. Random drug tests after rehab would also help them stay clean if they knew they would go to jail and their fines would go back to the original amount. Just throwing meth-heads in jail and taking their children isn't working. Bravo to Gov Hunstman for at least taking a fresh approach the this horrible problem.

As stated in the article, treatment is cheaper than incarcerating them. As someone who works in drug treatment I know that effective treatment has a better chance at rehabilitation than confinement and jailtime.

Incarceration is never a good answer to anything but the most violent crimes. Fines and rehab cost society much less - I think it would also be better to keep families together -

Well, like most ideas, it looks good on paper.
I know a meth addict. She is 28 and has been on drugs for most of her life.
She has had 3 children while on meth. Her boyfriend and father of her 2 girls ages 5 and 2 years left her in Oregon and moved to California to get the children away from the drugs. She stayed there, got pregnant again with another man (a high school student) and moved to California. The girls� father let her move in with him to help care for the girls because �she�s their mother� and Oregon was going to take the baby from her.
She immediately applied for social services for herself and the 2 girls so she �could contribute� to the family. She had another baby girl while here in California.
The baby was put in foster care for 2 months to get treatment for the aids virus her mother passed on to her in utero. The mom stayed in the home and went to daily meth rehab. Two months later they got the baby back.

The girls went to bed when they wanted to. The 7 year old would tell me about the tv shows that were on at 10pm or later. That was probably why she was absent from 2nd grade 17 times in 17 weeks of school. The meals were mostly bowls of cereal or chips. They were always filthy and wearing dirty clothes. It was terrible, but totally acceptable to someone on drugs, because as long as they are high or know where the high is coming from, then life is good and in their eyes the kids are fine.
Eighteen months later, social services called me to say the girls were removed from the home by court order. The mom was to enter drug rehab (again). Would I care for them?
So the girls, ages 7, 4, and 1� came to live with me. Their mother went to rehab when she wasn�t in jail. Their dad had to go to anger management and parenting classes. They were supposed to be back with Dad in 6 months time. It took him 14 months to complete the 6 month program.