Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News Homer High School Principal Ron Keffer, left, talks about drugs and alcohol at the high school as Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Tom Dunn, center, and PTA President Rachael Roe, right, listen. Sgt. Lary Kuhns, left, and Sgt. Will Hutt, right, stand behind them.

Last Thursday, Kuhns made it, and fellow police, mental health clinicians and school officials showed up in force to back up his message: Methamphetamine as a drug problem has arrived on the lower Kenai Peninsula.

Kuhns said meth is widespread in Alaska.

"It's been a problem all over, but seems to have increased the last few years," he said.

"It's not a matter of when, because it's already here," added Paul Morton, a licensed professional counselor and former California police officer.

Morton and Kuhns, along with Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Tom Dunn, police Sgt. Will Hutt, high school principal Ron Keffer and Jim Henkelman, a licensed clinical social worker with Community Mental Health Center, spoke to about 70 people — mostly parents. PTA President Rachael Roe said she wanted the meeting to be positive and proactive, with the focus of getting information out to parents on Homer's drug and alcohol problem.

Kuhns said there are about 50 recipes for making meth, using basic ingredients like pseudo ephedrine, iodine and matchbook strikers. Henkelman said a Google search of "meth recipes" yields 120,00 hits — actually, it's more like 689,000 hits.

Henkelman said cooking meth is highly profitable. About $20 in ingredients makes $1,500 of meth. Meth gives a longer high than cocaine, 12 hours instead of an hour, for about the same price, $120 a gram.

Meth may be a monetary bargain, but the psychological cost is greater.

"It is actually much worse than cocaine," Morton said. "It's the most diabolical drug I've seen."

Most of the speakers laid out a clear message to parents. To reduce meth use, the community has to take a strong, zero-

tolerance stand against drugs — including marijuana. Meth is often sprinkled onto marijuana and smoked, Henkelman said.

"I think something we're going to have to seriously think about is our general attitude toward substance abuse," he said.

Dunn and police said they can increase law enforcement and make drug arrests, but they need support from the community. If people see suspected drug dealing or meth cooking, they should take down information like license plates, descriptions of people and other details. Witnesses also have to be willing to go public and testify in court.

"I want members (of the community) to call us and tell us everything they know," Dunn said. "We want you to go the whole nine yards."

Henkelman said meth labs can be identified by frequent visitors and activity at a house, fences, drawn windows, chemical odors and trash with lots of pill or iodine bottles. Meth cooks also smoke cigarettes outdoors for fear of igniting hazardous chemicals.

"It's like walking into a potential bomb," he said.

At Homer High School, suspensions for marijuana and alcohol doubled this year, with 20 suspensions, all but one first-time, Keffer said.

"We haven't found meth," he said. "But that's because we can't detect it."

Keffer said meth isn't as obvious as marijuana and alcohol. Teachers and officials usually catch students by smelling marijuana or alcohol on their breath or clothes. Sometimes officials smell marijuana or alcohol but don't find it. In that case, parents are called and alerted to possible substance abuse.

Police don't want to arrest users, Hutt said. They're after the big fish, the small-time meth cooks and the dealers. If a student had a drug problem and sought police help, Hutt said the intent of the police isn't to get an arrest or conviction.

"It would be to get them treatment," he said.

Keffer called for parents to be firm with their children.

"Kids need to understand what our attitude is," he said. "What kids are hearing in our community is not crystal clear. They are enabled in concrete ways to use drugs."

He noted that in most cases where students are caught with drugs or alcohol, they got it from their parents.

"Parents have to work on the same page. We're in this together," Keffer said.

Mickey Todd noted the relatively low turnout among parents at the PTA meeting is part of the problem. At elementary school PTA meetings, almost 100 percent of parents attend big meetings. With 450 students at the high school, Thursday night's parent attendance was well below 100 percent.

"There are a percentage of parents who care about their kids," Todd said. "But there are a percentage who don't."

Several parents whose children have struggled with drugs spoke at the meeting. Janet Mullen, who has spoken at other meetings about her 17-year-old son's meth addiction, said her son fit the pattern. He was awake for long stretches and then would crash. Mullen's son is now in treatment, and still has cravings after being off meth for four months. Mullen thinks one solution to detect meth and other drugs would be to get a drug-sniffing dog on the lower Kenai Peninsula. She's leading a fund-raising campaign to raise money for such a dog.

Francie Roberts, a high school teacher, suggested simple things like parent teas. Parents could get together for informal gatherings and share information about their kids. She's done this before, and as simple as it sounds, it works.

"It frightens kids to death," she said.

Roe said parents need to stay involved with their children. She told of how when her daughter got into a little trouble, she kept on her.

"When are you going to give up on me?" Roe said her daughter asked.

"I said ‘never,'" she said.

Community involvement is the key, Dunn and others kept repeating.

"The community has to step up and say ‘This is enough,'" he added.

Another town meeting on meth is scheduled for 7 p.m., April 24 at the Community Christian Church on Bartlett Street, said Peter Nagle, the Homer artist who organized a meeting two weeks ago.