Details continue to be revealed in the case against former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick J. Sullivan Jr., including charges he was trading methamphetamine for sex with men.
While it’s not yet known whether the 68-year-old Sullivan was snorting, smoking or injecting the drug himself, statistics show it is extremely rare for older adults to abuse methamphetamine.
In Colorado, only 1.3 percent of all treatment admissions for methamphetamine addiction in 2010 were for people age 55 and older.
“There’s not a lot of old meth addicts because the drug does so much damage to the body,” said Kent MacLennan, executive director of the Colorado Meth Project. “The drug is so powerful no matter what age you get involved. It causes you to do things you would not usually do.”
Methamphetamine impacts the frontal lobe of the brain, an area that controls judgment, he said.
“That is why people make poor decisions no matter their age, because the drug becomes all-consuming,” MacLennan said.
Sgt. Jim Gerhardt of the North Metro Drug Task Force said only about 5 percent to 10 percent of his methamphetamine cases involve people over 60.
“The entire baby boomer generation are all in their mid- to late 60s and late 70s now,” he said. “Some of those people continue on with their recreational use through that time. There is probably a lot more people in that age range more open to drug use than that age group has ever been prior.”
One of the allegations made against Sullivan is that he claimed to be helping addicts recover from using drugs and said he was working for an anti-meth task force.
Users sometimes find drug connections at Narcotics Anonymous meetings or rehab because a few of the attendees are only there because it is ordered as part of their probation, Gerhardt said. It’s also fairly easy to score meth at nightclubs and strip clubs.
“You can find your way into any drug activity you are looking for,” Gerhardt said. “Once you make the choice to get involved, you have options out there.”
Methamphetamine labs are on the decline in Colorado, but Mexican drug cartels continue to ship the drug in large quantities along Interstate 25.
Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Matt Barden works in the southeastern portion of the state, where much of the methamphetamine trafficking takes place.
In the past 14 months, the DEA seized 118 pounds of meth, or $2 million worth, in Barden’s 23-county jurisdiction.
“We just seized probably close to six pounds today and seven-and-a-half pounds on Tuesday,” Barden said Friday. “We are going to be somewhere between 13 and 14 pounds (for the) week.”
