By Patrick McGroarty
Reporter Staff

Michael Scanlon, who was charged with crimes ranging from possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute after his home on Savin Hill Avenue was raided by state and local police last Wednesday morning, is also under investigation for a number of other drug-related charges, state and local police told the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association on Monday night. In addition to the six charges already filed, law enforcement officials suspect that Scanlon may have been distributing GBH, the "date rape drug," and that his home may have contained digital footage of people engaged in sexual acts with victims drugged with GHB, said State Police Sgt. Brian Dunn, speaking to the CSHCA.

Dunn reported that an addendum was made to the original warrant used to search Scanlon's home to examine computers and piles of compact discs found in the home. A spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office did not return calls seeking more information on Dunn's statements.

Dunn also stated that Scanlon was not producing crystal methamphetamine in the house, but instead appears to have been refining the drug into a purer substance using shipments he received each week from Oregon.

At the CSHCA meeting, Boston Police Community Service Officer Mike Keaney said that two additional meth-related arrests were made in the neighborhood in recent weeks, including an arrest at a home at 32 Juliette Street, where the resident was also receiving packages of meth from the western states.

News of the bust in Savin Hill has lent credence to claims that crystal methamphetamine, or "tina" as it is sometimes called, is being used more frequently within the city.

"The only group in the city where meth use has gone up is the men who have sex with men category," said Rita Nieves of the Boston Public Health Commission. "We need to determine why people are doing it, and how we can best serve them with prevention and treatment efforts."

Meth first appeared on the West coast and in rural areas in the 1980s, and has moved slowly across the United States. More recently, the drug has begun to infiltrate urban centers along the East Coast. In a 2002 study, the Office of National Drug Control Policy listed Boston as one of twelve U.S. cities where law enforcement agencies had reported a marked increase in methamphetamine usage.

The following year, the Boston Public Health Commission organized a group called the Partnership for Crystal Methamphetamine Prevention in response to a sharp increase in the number of patients seeking meth addiction treatment from local health centers.

"People had started talking about meth use and expressing concern for what was happening," said Frank Busconi, manager of the outpatient substance abuse program at the Fenway Health Center, a founding member of the BPHC-organized partnership. "It's important to understand this in context and not have the addicted person be over pathologized, but it's out there."

The Fenway's treatment methods, including peer-to-peer outreach at places where meth use occurs, like clubs and bars, were the model for a training program that the BPHC will offer to other area health providers beginning this summer.

Such programs will be useful to health workers like Jennifer Fine, the addictions coordinator at Dorchester House. She said that within the last year a handful of people have come to the health center seeking assistance with meth addictions. She worries that if that number were to increase, Dorchester House and other local providers would be ill-prepared to meet a growing need.

"If this explodes like it has other places, I don't know that we'd have the resources to manage this with proper treatment and other governmental services," said Fine. "All these kinds of services are really overwhelmed here as it is."

Oxycontin, ecstacy, heroin, and opium, said Fine, are currently much more common addiction concerns in the neighborhood. Emmet Folgert of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative confirmed that while many neighborhood teens were aware of meth, it had not made inroads into the younger party scene.

Fine remains concerned that the ability of local health care providers to respond effectively might be hindered by a number of factors. For example, meth is not considered a withdrawal-inducing drug, meaning that insurance will not cover the cost of a residential detox program, as required to kick alcohol or heroin addictions.

"I feel like most people who work in substance abuse treatment are doing everything they can to hang on by the skin of their teeth," said Fine. "I don't know that anyone has the wherewithal to look up from what they're doing to things like this that might be coming down the pike."