Pubdate: Sun, 6 Jan 2008
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2008 Fayetteville Observer
Contact:  http://www.fayobserver.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

Safety Measures:

METHODIST'S METH PROJECT IMPROVES FIRST RESPONDERS' ODDS

The State Bureau of Investigation reports that the number of 
methamphetamine labs discovered in North Carolina increased almost 
tenfold from 2001 through 2004, from dozens to hundreds. It may be 
too early to call that a trend, but it isn't too early to say that 
meth is a serious threat.

It's a threat to the health of the users, of course, and to anyone 
who gets crosswise of an addict.

It's a threat to the producers, who risk immolation in obedience to 
the law of supply and demand.

It's even a threat to the environment, because there's much more 
toxic byproduct than marketable drug left at the end of the process 
and the waste is invariably (and unlawfully) dumped, creating one or 
more new hazards in one or more new locations.

Those at greatest risk are, unsurprisingly, the ones on the front 
line. Law enforcement officers put their lives at risk even when 
there's no suspect around at the time of a raid. And every lab is a 
"hazmat" situation in which the lab must be disassembled and the 
materials removed amid the threats of poisoning, explosion and fire.

In the period mentioned above, more than two dozen first responders 
were injured. There surely have been others since.

Methodist University is positioning itself to give those people a 
better shot at both success and survival. The school has been 
authorized almost $400,000 to set up a Methamphetamine Educational 
Training Project that will help those first responders take advantage 
of improved information and technology.

The federal grant, obtained through the efforts of Congressmen Bob 
Etheridge and Mike McIntyre and U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth 
Dole, will pay for forensic lab equipment and training aids to teach 
students and law enforcement officers to attack the problem from 
several angles at once.

Detection, disruption of production, disassembly, removal, site 
remediation -- all are on this agenda, as is getting it done with the 
lowest risk that such work allows.

None of it addresses the demand side of the equation, so realistic 
expectations are in order. But it's realistic to view meth as an 
especially pernicious division of the illicit drug industry, and we 
expect good things to result from this initiative.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake