The first week of July is the unofficial kickoff for summer in the Inland Northwest. The weather warms. Parties commence. Drug use, serious and recreational, often goes along with the summer “fun.”

Those waging the daily fight against methamphetamine would like the summer to also become a time for increased awareness about the use of this drug in our Inland Northwest communities.

The “meth warriors” would like everyone to be educated about how many different people are sideswiped by meth. Businesses pay a price when meth users shoplift the ingredients to manufacture meth or steal merchandise to finance their habit. Law-abiding individuals become targets of personal property theft. The number of reported burglary, larceny and car-theft cases increased by 10 percent last year in Spokane. Crime experts believe that meth users are behind this increase in property crimes.

And when meth meets a family, the children suffer most of all. Linda Thompson and Marcia Via of Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council’s Prevention Center can tell you stories about the children of meth, such as the children who get teased for wearing the same unclean clothes day after day, clothes that stink of chemicals.

Summer is also the time to check out the ways people can get involved in the fight against meth use. The Spokane Meth Action Team, a coalition of educators, businesses, elected officials, youth advocates, law-enforcement and health-care professionals, meets the third Tuesday of the month at 8:30 a.m. The meetings, at the Spokane Regional Health District, 1101 W. College Ave., near downtown Spokane, are open to the public.

The team also makes speakers available to business groups and other organizations that want to learn the facts, and the myths, associated with meth use in the Inland Northwest.

Awareness and prevention can help young people avoid that first recreational use of meth, sometimes offered as part of summer fun. Awareness and prevention, however, require community involvement, solid funding and a willingness to accept that meth has infiltrated our great-place-to-raise-a- family Inland Northwest.