HOULTON — Are you concerned about methamphetamine use in the Shiretown? If so, make plans to come to Houlton Southside School on Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30 p.m. as the Link for Hope Coalition sponsors a Methamphetamine Awareness Night.
“Winston Churchill once said, ‘All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing,’” said Rebecca Miller of the Link for Hope Coalition. “Who would have ever considered the fact that we would be tuning into our local news and hear that yet another methamphetamine lab had been discovered in our area?
Since January 2012 there have been eight meth labs discovered and processed in the southern Aroostook area, the most recent in Oakfield.
Some of the questions to be answered during this seminar include:
• What is the impact to those living in or near the meth lab?
• What is the cost to the taxpayer for the clean up the lab?
• What is the risk to those living in or near the lab?
• What do we know about the contamination of the property?
• What about the landlords? What is their responsibility regarding their property?
• And what about the children?
Dr. Karen Simone, director of the Northern New England Poison Control Center will provide information regarding the risk to exposed individuals — the user, the children, law enforcement, health care works and the updated information regarding contaminated sites.
Darrell Crandall, commander of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, will tell how easy it is for users to obtain the ingredients, what merchants and neighbors should look for, the penalties in the state of Maine and MDEA’s responsibility.
Butch Asselin, chief of police for the Houlton Police Department will discuss the budgetary impacts as well as the negative effects on our communities.
Other speakers include Peter McCorison, from the Aroostook Mental Health Center and Philip Jurson from Life by Design, who will discuss addiction; and Gretel Crockett from the Department of Health and Human Services, child protection division, will explain their role in protecting the children who are living in a meth lab household.
There will also be a question-and-answer period.
