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Navajo senior citizens worried about methamphetamine
Friday, April 7, 2006

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Oversight Hearing on The Problem of Methamphetamine in Indian Country, April 5, 2006. • Webcast | Testimony Panel 1 WILLIAM P. RAGSDALE Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior ROBERT G. MCSWAIN Deputy Director, Indian Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services MATTHEW H. MEAD U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Wyoming Panel 2 KATHLEEN WESLEY-KITCHEYAN Chairwoman, San Carlos Apache Tribe IVAN POSEY Chairman, Wind River Eastern Shoshone Tribe JEFFERSON KEEL First Vice President National Congress of American Indians, and Lieutenant Governor of Chickasaw Nation GARY EDWARDS Chief Executive Officer, National Native American Law Enforcement Association KARRIE AZURE United Tribes Multi-Tribal Indian Drug and Alcohol Initiative, United Tribes Technical College

Senior citizens on the Navajo Nation have shown new interest in learning about methamphetamine after an 81-year-old grandmother was arrested for distributing the drug.

In the week after the arrest, five senior citizen centers asked the tribe for a meth training video. The video, produced in Navajo and English, shows people how to identify the warning signs and symptoms of meth use and meth trafficking.

The tribe's Department of Behavioral Health Services has been doing presentations across the reservation to raise awareness of meth. An employee said the drug could end up being a bigger problem than alcohol.

The youngest documented meth usage on the reservation is 8 years old, with the oldest at 81 years old, the tribe reported. Girls are reporting that they are being given the drug free.

Get the Story:
Grandmother's arrest prompts elderly Diné to seek meth education (The Gallup Independent 4/6)

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