WILKESBORO -- Donna Reeves was worried about her daughter Casey's drug use. "I told her, 'I don't want to get that phone call (that) somebody's found my daughter dead,'" Reeves said. "Mom, I know my limits," Casey told her. But one Saturday, Casey stayed in bed uncharacteristically late. Her father had gone out of town to a charity event and her mother was upstairs. "I was the one who had to make that phone call to her daddy and tell him that his daughter was dead, because I'm the one who found her," Reeves said. [continues 1148 words]
Fear That Dealers Are Targeting Kids Sparks Effort, But Skeptics Say That Threat Is Only A Myth JEFFERSON Drug dealers could be distributing candy-flavored methamphetamine to children. Or reports that they are could be an urban legend spreading on the Internet and in the news media, depending on who you believe. But in Ashe County, Sheriff James Williams' nose told him that a batch of pink meth seized by his investigators during a three-month investigation earlier this year sure smelled different. [continues 822 words]
Squad, A Reaction To Dangerous Meth Labs, Will Use Special Suits Wilkes County now has an FBI-certified bomb squad that will serve a 10-county area in Northwest North Carolina. The regional squad was formed in response to dangers encountered at clandestine methamphetamine labs, said Wilkes Sheriff Dane Mastin. "Those chemicals are so volatile, they are incendiary and explosive in nature," he told Wilkes County commissioners last night. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a budget transfer that was the last action needed to pay for a special suit designed to protect the wearer from explosions and chemical or biological agents. [continues 345 words]
Hospitals Reporting Increase in Cases Related to Drug When an emergency-room patient is the operator of a methamphetamine lab, medical workers have to decontaminate him, protect other patients and protect themselves. "You do it as quickly as possible while also dealing with the medical things," said Cindy Hinshaw, the director of the emergency department at Watauga Medical Center. "It's very complicated. It's also very taxing. It's very, very stressful." Law-enforcement officials say that meth has put a strain on their departments, but according to two studies released yesterday, abuse of the drug is beginning to affect emergency-room operations in some places as well. [continues 925 words]
Law For Mandatory Jail Terms Is Helping, He Says BOONE - N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said yesterday that he expects to see a reduction of methamphetamine labs in the state this year. "I truly believe the number of meth labs is leveling off and will continue to level off because of the actions we've taken," he said in a phone interview. There were 328 clandestine labs seized in 2005 in North Carolina, up slightly from the 322 labs found in 2004. But it is the first time since 2000 that the numbers didn't double from the previous year. [continues 419 words]
Appalachian State University Administrators Deal With the Aftermath of Two Drug-Related Deaths of Students Since October By Monte Mitchell and Laura Giovanelli, Journal Reporters The drug-related killings of two Appalachian State University students a little more than a year apart has stunned this mountain campus. It has also raised questions about drugs and the university. According to university data, ASU's judicial system handled 142 drug-related offenses in 2004. That's more than any other school in the University of North Carolina system. It averages about 1 in 100 students at ASU involved in drug incidents. By comparison, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which is about the same size as ASU, reported 20 such incidents, or one for every 718 students. [continues 2047 words]
Besides Peril To Health, They Are Further Victimized When Parents Are Arrested Jocelyn was 13 years old and had a broken ankle that hadn't been treated for two days. She was lying in the bed of a pickup next to her mother and another woman when authorities barreled onto the Ashe County property to serve a search warrant for a methamphetamine lab. The search turned up evidence of a lab and 15 guns, many of them loaded. Jocelyn asked members of the SWAT team not to destroy her homework, which was on a computer inside a trailer on the property. [continues 2839 words]
HICKORY -- Rivals in football, basketball and other sports are uniting to help fight drug and alcohol use among area middle and high school students. All three school systems in Catawba County are participating in the Drug Education Forum from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Catawba Valley Community College Multi-purpose Complex. Principal DeAnna Taylor of St. Stephens High School remembers what someone said in a planning meeting. "Let's leave the competition on the field and on the courts," she said. "We're here as one united, unified front to help the kids. That would be the whole idea." [continues 327 words]
