National
Navajo senior citizens worried about methamphetamine


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 Din� to seek meth education (The Gallup Independent 4/6)

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