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	CSAW Gives Report To Moapa TAB

	By Vernon Robison Moapa Valley Progress Submitted Mar. 5, 2008 The Moapa Town Advisory Board heard a presentation on the work of the Moapa Valley Community for Substance Abuse Wellness (CSAW) organization at its meeting on Thursday, February 28. The presentation was given by CSAW President Bruce Whitney of Logandale. Whitney explained that the purpose of the CSAW organization was to bring education and awareness about substance abuse to the community. He summed up the group’s activity over the past year. This year the organization has joined forces with a campaign called Crystal Darkness, Whitney said. The Crystal Darkness campaign is a prevention program that seeks to educates the public about the dangers of methamphetamine abuse. “Crystal Darkness talks about the horrible things that happen because of meth use,” Whitney said. Whitney recognized that most people probably drink at least a little bit of alcohol when they were kids and had, for the most part, received very few ill effects from it. But meth use is much different and much more risky, he said. He explained that studies show that 50% of meth users are addicted the very first time they use it. “By the third time, 92% of users are addicted to it,” Whitney said. Whitney said that this is because the drug floods the body with high dopamine levels. Dopamine is a chemical that the brain produces to give a person a ‘feel-good high’. Whitney gave examples of eating a favorite food or going on an exciting roller coaster ride as normal high dopamine producing activities. “Meth use triggers dopamine production that is 5 times what the most exciting roller coaster will do,” Whitney said. “That tricks the brain into thinking that there is too much dopamine production and, very quickly, the brain stops producing dopamine altogether.” The drug is highly addictive because the user very quickly gets to the point that the only way to feel normal levels of dopamine is to take more of the drug, Whitney said. Rehabilitation from meth is a long process. “If the person stays completely drug free, the brain will start to begin producing dopamine again after 11 or 12 months,” he said. In addition to reporting on Crystal Darkness, told the Board that the CSAW organization is also administering a community assessment. “In order to get grant money, and also to find out what needs we should address, we want to study what problems are out there in the community,” Whitney said. “We have put together a survey and are trying to get as much participation in it as possible.” He explained that the survey would be given to all of the students at the high school in the coming weeks. “That should give us a good picture from that and we’ll have a direction of where we should go from there,” he said. Whitney also stated that the group had also developed a separate survey for adults in the community. He asked that those in attendance at the board meeting would fill, out the survey and return it so that it could be included in the study. He also encouraged members of the community to get involved in the work of the organization. The CSAW organization meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. in the Old Logandale School building.