Pubdate: Tue, 02 Mar 2004
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Copyright: 2004 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Contact:  http://www.knoxnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

SPREADING THE WORD CAN HELP COMBAT METH

With the current methamphetamine scourge spreading, North Carolina's gain is
not necessarily Tennessee's loss. Unfortunately, there is ample room and too
many willing participants in both states to keep the meth wars going for a
while.

Law enforcement officers in Western North Carolina are among the latest to
experience the insidious effects of methamphetamine on those who produce it
as well as on their children and neighbors. East Tennesseans certainly
should be sympathetic.

Tennessee reportedly has the South's worst meth problems. Of the estimated
8,000 meth lab seizures in the United States last year, 1,150 were in the
Volunteer State. The fact that the problem is spreading east across the
state line does not mean it is leaving Tennessee.

Last year, 34 meth labs were seized in Watauga County, N.C. In the
heart-breaking side effect, social workers removed 17 children from homes
where the chemicals had saturated the walls, furniture and carpet. Nearly
3,300 children were removed from homes nationwide last year, earning them
the title "meth orphans."

And, in a chilling aspect to the whole sorry episode involving meth making
in North Carolina, children sometimes unwittingly brought on their parents'
arrest. A first-grader, for example, explained to her teacher how to cook
meth, and an older student included making meth in an essay on how the
student spent summer vacation.

That might be regarded as poetic justice for the makers, but it is part and
parcel of the tragedy surrounding methamphetamine.

Meth is a highly addictive and potent powder made from such common
ingredients as pseudoephedrine from cold tablets, lithium from batteries and
ammonia. After breathing, eating or injecting the product, users experience
an energy rush.

The addiction is compounded because each additional rush takes more and more
powder - which means cooking larger quantities. Add to the problems the fact
that the cookers are at times high on their product, and the situation
becomes more volatile.

Cleanup operations are expensive, costing from $2,000 to $4,000 to have
hazardous materials teams and other specially trained workers restore the
area to livability. This taxes the resources and funds of many local law
enforcement agencies.

In this state, the Tennessee Public Safety Coalition is asking the
Legislature for tougher penalties for making and distributing
methamphetamine. The group also supports a MethWatch program to help educate
citizens about the dangers of methamphetamine.

This is a problem that likely will require a multi-state or federal effort
to combat and bring under control, and the two prongs of tougher enforcement
and education are the most logical approaches. Any successes that Tennessee
and North Carolina can share at this point might save lives.

The fight also will require patience and attention, and it may take years -
as the coalition's education proposal suggests. As such, it deserves
widespread support from legislatures, schools, churches and other
community-spirited groups. We must make it difficult to look the other way.
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