ARLINGTON — Area residents may remember when meth use was reportedly on the rise.

More recently, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen has heard disturbing reports that heroin addiction has again become ascendant.

Citing President Obama’s stated commitment to combating heroin, Larsen met with representatives of the Arlington Drug Awareness Coalition at Haller Middle School Jan. 20.

“It was just a couple of years ago when I first heard from folks in Stanwood about their heroin problems,” Larsen said. “I’m always looking for ways to engage with communities on these issues, and understanding how they contribute to other problems, such as crime and homelessness.”

Larsen came away from his meeting with Arlington police officers Rory Bolter, Curtis Hirotaka and school resource officer Stephanie Ambrose impressed with how the coalition was handling the situation.

“As they’ve done for most times in their history, the Arlington community has really come together,” Larsen said. “They’re addressing these problems in an aggressive way, with a broad-based approach.”

Bolter had already worked with Larsen in curbing the meth epidemic, and deemed those efforts successful enough that he estimated he hadn’t gone on a meth lab bust in at least four years.

“We learned a lot from that work,” Bolter said. “You can reduce or even eliminate drug use through raising awareness, focusing on prevention and offering rehabilitation. It’s not just about cutting the supply, but addressing the demand.”

Bolter asked Larsen to see if he could free up any federal or state dollars to fund more treatment and detox centers in the county. He argued the cost of such centers is outweighed in the long run by the expenses of apprehending addicts as criminals and putting them through the health care system after their drug abuse has taken its toll on their bodies.

“They’re medical nightmares by the time we catch up with them,” Bolter said. “It’s a ton of money to put them through the health care system. Jails don’t want them, because of all their ailments, and they’re tying up medical resources they wouldn’t be if their addictions had been caught earlier.”

One of the knock on effects of such drug abuse is that Bolter estimates 95 percent of the homeless populations of Arlington and Smokey Point are addicted to heroin.

Bolter explained that the coalition was borne out of conversations four years ago between Arlington school staff and the former school resource officer, which led Bolter to involve not only faculty, but also parents, students and even local medical care professionals in raising awareness.

The coalition has since staged presentations for the public at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center at Arlington High School, drawing dozens of groups whose efforts address drug issues, as well as hundreds of attendees, but Bolter’s ideal solution remains out of reach.

“What we really want is to be able to pick somebody up, who’s addicted to drugs, and take them right to treatment,” Bolter said. “No waiting one or three days, long enough for them to change their minds, just boom, right into it.”

The problem is, the beds simply aren’t available, and insurance issues further complicate the matter.

“We’re spending money that would be better spent helping these folks,” Bolter said.

Larsen is cosponsoring several bills in Congress to improve access to overdose prevention and treatment for people struggling with addiction, as well as supporting federal funding to address homelessness.