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"Nine Adam Forty-Five, Nine Adam Forty-Five see the woman, unknown trouble " those words began a day I'll never forget. "See the woman, unknown trouble", a call broadcast into Los Angeles Police cars no less then a hundred times a day, I'd guess. I asked the dispatcher for more information. In a calm, sweet voice she repeated the address and advised, "45, your call is code-3. PR reports a juvenile over-dose, the victim has stopped breathing. Fire Department's in route."

As the City of Angels prepared for the '84 Summer Olympics, my partner and I were about the meet the devil. Mike faced our black & white,- -city issue, through traffic with experience gained from having over 20 years of a career in his rearview mirror. I worked the siren watching our 3 o'clock yelling "clear right" as we approached chocked intersections. We raced down Van Nuys Boulevard, cutting a hole in traffic with red lights and siren. Turning into a neighborhood, that could have been any neighborhood in America, our tires and siren screamed help was on its way.

Down the sidewalk a woman, in her early 30's, ran toward our black & white. We sped by as she screamed and waved her arms, we knew the address, it was three doors down. My partner put the worn-out cop car into a four-wheel lock skid and we kicked the doors open to the sound of teeth being ground off the tranny. Our boots hit the pavement. We ran to the address we'd been given, up the steps, onto the porch, the door was open. The crying woman ran up behind us. On the bed, off the modest living room was a small figure, her head back and mouth open. We could hear the siren of the ambulance in the distance, coming closer. The woman scooped up the small girl, "baby, baby, baby," she wept holding the child close. My partner snatched the lifeless child from the woman's arms and she seemed to fight him. "Get her out of here, partner!" Mike yelled, as he went to the floor giving the little girl CPR.

The woman pushed her face hard into my badge screaming, "PLEASE, HELP MY BABY!" The ambulance screeched to a halt, as we had seconds before. I puffed the woman aside and my partner ran toward the ambulance as the firemen were opening the doors. The little girl was limp, wet, as if he had just pulled her from the shower. Drops of sweat ran down her arm and off her open fingers that hung and bounced as my partner ran by, still giving her CPR- The woman suddenly became very quiet and her knees buckled. Her neighbor ran up the stairs and onto the porch giving me a hand. When the neighbor took over I was down the steps to the ambulance to see the firemen working on the little girl, she wasn't moving.

After the ambulance pulled away and the girl's mother was being driven to the hospital by her neighbor, my partner and I sat still in the car. I stared straight ahead. Quietly and then louder I could hear my partner cry. His head went down on the steering wheel as he cried, I couldn't break away from whatever it was I was looking at out that window. We just sat there, two grown men, two policemen, crying over a little 13 year old girl that had over-dosed on drugs, drugs a friend had given her, drugs her momma knew nothing about. I'll never forget what happened next. My partner seemed to shrink, he looked smaller, even thought he was as big as I was, he look smaller. He wiped his face with his open hand. "The city gives us the power to take someone's freedom, to lock them up for life. We carry guns and have the power over life and death at times, but I couldn't save her." in less then three months my partner retired. There's a saying in police work "You come on the job you're give ajar of marbles. Every time you allow something to touch you, one of the marbles is taken away. If you let to much touch you, you soon lose all your marbles. "

Come into our school with a gun and we're outraged. Threatened our children and we'll demand you be hung in the street. Yet, our children's lives are threatened daily by drugs and we stand by passively. In the City of Angels or the home of Smokey Bear, it doesn't matter, drugs threaten our children daily and we're like the woman whose tears were left on my badge, we know nothing. The Ruidoso News, February 16, 2005, reported "On Jan. 25, Emergency Medical Services transported a male student firom Capitan High School to Lincoln County Medical Center for a possible drug overdose ..."

We live in fear of violating civil and privacy rights, so we do nothing. Do the good kids have rights? Why do we tolerate drug dealers on our streets and in our schools? Is it better to be politically correct or morally right? Allow me to educate you on your village and your nation. Methamphetamine or meth is what is happening. When meth comes in to the blood stream it bypasses the natural nerve cells, causing an artificial release of normal chemical messengers for positive feelings, resulting in a feeling of satisfaction, well-being and relief. Then, your system sends a signal of positive reward back to the memory, you're now addicted. The first meth high is locked in your subconscious memory and you want to recapture that feeling, but meth never gives you as big a "high" as the first time. As the user reaches for the high in more uses, the drug shuts off the desire to eat, resulting in weight lose. In certain studies, animals would press levers to release meth into their blood steam, no longer were they concerned with eating, mating, or other natural drives. They'll in fact, die of starvation in the process of giving themselves meth even though food is available.

From the Koch Crime Institute; Meth use among high school seniors more then doubled between 1990 & 1996 and women are more likely to use then men. The average meth cooker annually teaches ten others how to make meth. Every pound of meth produces between 5 to 6 pounds of toxic waste. Meth accounts for up to 90% of all drug cases in many communities. Meth kills, causing heart failure, brain damage and stroke. It eats away muscle tissue while rotting the user's teeth. Meth produces hallucinations and induces paranoia. It has been linked to numerous murders and suicides. Meth is highly addictive, the users lie, even if the evidence is in their hand, "the meth lie" and meth is the hardest to treat of all drug additions. But worst of all, meth is in our schools.

It's not just our town. Two weeks ago, on tape, I heard an admitted meth dealer, after being caught, somewhat proudly naming names, telling of buying and selling in Capitan, Ruidoso, Carrizozo, the Downs, and on the Reservation. Three days later the same dealer is running down 3 80, the "Meth Express" to Carrizozo to score, presumably from the same people she had named only days before.

These losers are stealing our children's lives. Complicity is involvement and these people should be treated with the respect of a 19th century leper. Your Village Trustees, Teachers, Police and Sheriff s Department care, they need your support, stand with them. Good people stand on principals; straight, unwavering and brave, demanding the same from others, they don't shrink. It's time to answer the call, "Capitan Citizens, Capitan Citizens, see the children, unknown trouble".