Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jun 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
Author: J.J. STAMBAUGH

CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES CAN AID IN METH FIGHT, TASK FORCE TOLD

HARRIMAN - In the near future, technologies currently used to detect 
chemical weapons and explosives could be adapted to the government's 
struggle against methamphetamine.

That was the message delivered to the Governor's Task Force on 
Methamphetamine Abuse at a meeting Monday at Roane State Community College 
in Harriman by officials from the Tennessee National Guard and Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory.

Gov. Phil Bredesen appointed the 20-member panel to study the problem with 
the drug, a habit-forming stimulant distilled from over-the-counter cold 
medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, after lawmakers failed 
to agree on meth legislation in March.

The panel has been asked to present its recommendations to Bredesen by Sept. 1.

Over the past few years, the number of meth labs discovered in Tennessee 
has skyrocketed, prompting officials to label the drug's popularity an 
epidemic. Thousands of arrests have been made and hundreds of children 
removed from homes in East Tennessee since the late 1990s, according to 
state and federal statistics.

The processes used to make meth can trigger fires and explosions as well as 
release toxic chemicals, forcing authorities to spend hundreds of thousands 
of dollars cleaning up lab sites.

Monday's meeting focused on how current technologies are being used to 
fight meth and what tools might be available in the near future.

Col. Bill Hartbarger of the Tennessee National Guard explained how his 
agency was recently asked to bring an ion scanner to Johnson City because 
officials suspected that the drug was being made in a child's home.

Using the handheld scanner - which can also detect other illegal drugs as 
well as explosives - the guardsmen "detected the actual presence of meth on 
the child's clothes," Hartbarger said.

"Children are the real victims here," said Tullahoma Mayor Steve Cope, who 
heads the panel's working group on how the drug affects communities.

Lee Riedinger, deputy director for science and technology at ORNL, opened 
up a presentation on several different technologies under development that 
could potentially be adapted to help detect meth labs.

For instance, hyperspectral imaging, used to detect leaking freon and 
ammonia after the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, 
could probably detect large meth-making operations from the air, officials 
said.

Even though small labs make up 95 percent of those labs seized by the 
federal Drug Enforcement Administration, "super labs" account for 78 
percent of the methamphetamine production in the United States, according 
to an ORNL summary handed out to task force members.

A mass spectrometer that has been used to detect chemical weapons around 
the world could also be adapted to sniff out meth labs, ORNL officials 
said, and other technologies also show promise.

The task force also reviewed several strategies under consideration 
including increasing Department of Children's Services resources, working 
on cooperation between agencies and adopting new restrictions on how 
ephedrine-based products may be sold.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart