Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jul 2001
Source: Log Cabin Democrat (AR)
Copyright: The Log Cabin Democrat
Contact:  http://thecabin.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/548
Author: Linda Burdick

METH PROGRAM IS GREAT BENEFIT

 From Linda Burdick, Little Rock:

Recently the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office, Conway Police Department, 
Sheriff's Association and Sen. Gilbert Baker united to present a forum on 
the hazards of methamphetamine and methamphetamine laboratories to a 
community. The presentation covered the health, environmental, biological 
and chemical hazards of the methamphetamine manufacturing process, to the 
outward signs and physiological responses of meth use. There must have been 
a lot of man-hours devoted to tracking down the right people for each bit 
of information which was presented in a basic, bite-sized, understandable 
way. The presentation was informative, frighteningly accurate and very well 
presented.

The members of the Crime Lab Clandestine Laboratory Response Team have 
worked with some of these officers at 2 a.m. when they have been up for 36 
hours straight. These men and women work so hard at an overwhelming 
problem. The clan lab problem is devouring the time of narcotics officers 
across the state, putting huge demands on already busy schedules, and 
making them work in highly toxic/explosive environments. These people get 
tired.

And yet it is a problem they can't ignore because of the hazards to 
communities are very real for themselves and for a growing number of 
peripheral victims who may or may not know anything about methamphetamine: 
patrol officers, firefighters, haz-mat specialists, EMTs, hospital 
personnel, farmers or neighborhood kids.

As was stated in the presentation, are meth cooks and users "bad people"? 
Not necessarily, but once they get lost in the world of meth, they forget 
there are others who depend on them (pets, spouses, and children). They 
forget their lives impact the communities around them -- their families and 
their neighbors.

Across this state, the lab team and officers have had to walk in the sad 
world they live in. A world where meth doesn't care what happens to their 
lives, but the same lives that are devoted to meth.

My congratulations to the hardworking people who put this presentation 
together. It is a real and growing problem in every community. And will 
only be reigned in by the combined efforts of law enforcement and the 
people of the communities they serve. Everyone should see it.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This letter also was signed by Lori Stacks. Both are 
forensic chemists with the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.)
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth