Part four of a series on meth in Teller
County.
Drug court therapist and mother of a recovering addict, Maggie
Brimm is wise, tough and sympathetic, to a point.
“I know what addiction means, personally and professionally.
That’s what people like about me; I can be genuine because I know
what it feels like,” she said. “We’re in the trenches
together.”
For substance abusers, getting arrested and charged with felony
possession can be the first step on the way up from the slough of
addiction.
“Methamphetamine is a plague that ruins people’s lives,” Brimm
said. “People get into it without realizing the devastation, don’t
fully understand the addictive properties of the drug.”
Arraigned in court, the user is given a choice, jail or an
intense treatment program through Teller County’s Drug
Court.
“People have to accept drug court and go through an extensive
screening process,” Brimm said. “For those who choose treatment,
that says a lot for them; they’ve made a commitment to themselves
right up front.”
The court works on the principle of cause and effect, such as
failure to comply results in added jail time.
“The drug team is going to support, encourage and motivate but
we’re also going to penalize according to the infraction,” she
said.
A positive behavioral therapist, Brimm helps the client connect
thought processes to feelings to behavior.
“So we need to start tapping into the thought process,” she
said.
On the practical side, the drug-court candidate is kept
constantly on the run, seeing the therapist, probation officer,
drug-court judge, caseworker, in addition to either working,
looking for a job or going to school.
“If something’s goin’ on we’re going to be able to tackle it
right away,” Brimm said. “And they have to call me every
day.”
To quell the physical and emotional craving for drugs, users
must have a plan, Brimm said.
“Right off the bat we’re talking about relapse prevention,
looking at options, learning coping skills,” Brimm said.
“Rehabilitation assumes you had all these skills and lost them when
you got connected to drug use. It’s more like ‘habilitation’
because some people never had these skills in the first
place.”
Along with learning how to do life, meth users must have the
medication-management piece in the recovery plan.
“I’m really big on this,” Brimm said. “If they don’t have a
doctor, I get them enrolled in the Divide Health Clinic because
most of them are going to need medication such as an
anti-depressant.”
The medication counteracts the withdrawal symptoms while
enhancing the user’s motivation to get well, which, in turn,
strengthens the resolve to stay in treatment, Brimm said. “If they
bugger off treatment, what are they going to do?”
As a drug and alcohol therapist, Brimm thought she knew how to
cope, how to handle her her teenage daughter’s addiction to meth
several years ago.
“I felt powerless at the time, thought I should know what to do.
But you get caught up in the emotion,” she said.
Brimm’s daughter was lucky.
“I found out she was on meth from one of her friends,” Brimm
said. “That was it, from that point on, I did whatever it took,
pulled out all the stops to save her life. That’s what I think
everybody should do. If you have a loved one who is on meth, do
whatever it takes.”
She called Social Services, called the police, reported her
daughter missing at times, walked the halls of the high
school.
“I walked her from classroom to classroom, waited outside the
damn door,” she said.
Finally, Brimm took her daughter to a former treatment center in
Colorado Springs, Cheyenne Mesa.
“She wasn’t under lock and key and she did run away. But she
called me and went right back,” Brimm said.
After completing the program at Cheyenne Mesa, Brimm’s daughter
returned to Woodland Park High School and graduated that
year.
While the profusion of meth labs reflects an increase in the
availability of the drug, in fact, methamphetamine is nothing
new.
“It’s been building itself up to a plague,” Brimm said. “We’ve
just been unaware or lookin’ the other way.”
Like active alcoholics, drug addicts, including meth users, can
often appear normal.
“It’s amazing, but many of them can function. However, you have
to look at the difference. Are they using every day? Are they
shooting it? There’s no one size fits all,” Brimm said.
Like the court’s Judge Jackson Peters, Brimm is hesitant to tout
the drug court program, which began in January, a
success.
“We can’t go blasting out there saying this is the recipe
because that’s not true. Lapse and relapse go right along with
addiction,” she said.
The court is modeled after the one in El Paso County, where 8
out of 10 candidates graduate, said Lisa Kirkman, spokeswoman for
the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Brimm’s office is in Woodland Park and she sees clients on a
sliding-fee scale. For information, call 238-2908.