About Us
The Long Beach Meth Task Force was established in October 19, 2006 as a community response to the devastating impact of methamphetamine in Long Beach. The Task Force is composed of community members and agencies who are committed to developing solutions that promote prevention and treatment for those affected by methamphetamine.
Background
The convening of the Long Beach Meth Task Force was influenced by two critical community forums that shed light and focus on the local impact of meth in Long Beach. The Community Forum held at the St. Mary Medical Center on March 2006 provided the impetus for a strong community-driven advocacy efforts to harness resources and support for meth prevention and treatment in Long Beach. In addition, the Public Safety Advisory Commission (PSAC) developed a set of recommendations to the Long Beach City Council to address methamphetamine use in Long Beach. Summarized below are the recommendations from PSAC and the Community Forum. The full reports may be viewed under "Reports and Documents."
PSAC Recommendations:
Per the request of the City Council, it is the recommendation of the Public Safety Advisory Commission that the City of Long Beach combat the increasing problem of methamphetamine use within the following comprehensive framework:
* Prevention/Education
* Enforcement
* Intervention
* Treatment
* Rehabilitation
The following are the four PSAC recommendations:
1. Explore the feasibility of restricting over the counter sales of drugs containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.
2. Continue to assess the effectiveness of programs in Long Beach and other communities across the nation to combat meth use.
3. Monitor how the increase in meth use is being addressed by our criminal justice system within the context of proposition 36.
4. Explore and encourage innovative measures that the Police Department can implement to address meth use and related crimes.
Call to Action Community Forum Report Recommendations:
1. Social Marketing: Initiate a community-wide social marketing campaign that will address the social and health issues associated with methamphetamine.
2. Collaboration: Improve interagency collaboration between the many public civic, and private agencies involved in prevention, care, research and treatment of methamphetamine.
3. Funding and Advocacy: Increase current funds available to address the problems associated with methamphetamine; this should also include extensive state and federal advocacy.
4. Methamphetamine Taskforce: Develop and foster a multidisciplinary coalition of prevention and treatment providers to facilitate an ongoing dialogue about identifying solutions that protect the public’s health and quality of life from the methamphetamine epidemic.