SPOTTING METH USE

It's been almost one month since Cookeville City Council's
anti-methamphetamine ordinance went into effect, and at least one
retailer is asking what it can do to help in addition to complying
with the new policy. Putnam County Sheriff's Department detectives
Greg Whittaker and Harold Eaton and Cookeville Police Officer Brian
Long took their message to Wal-Mart on Thursday by offering classes to
help educate employees to suspicious purchases of common ingredients
used in making meth.

The large retailer is the first to request local law enforcement to
make such presentations to its employees, and Det. Whittaker said they
are certainly available to do more.

"We're warning them about chemicals they (meth makers) are coming in
to buy," Whittaker said. "We're asking for any information they can
give us about large amounts of chemicals being purchased.

"We're not asking you to be police," he told employees. "We're just
asking you to help us if you can."

Whittaker stressed that employees could work with law enforcement
simply by providing them with tips of suspicious purchases such as
large quantities of household items used in the manufacture of meth,
not by approaching suspected meth producers.

"Most all of these people are dangerous," he said.

Whittaker and other officers purchased items used in the manufacture
of meth on Wednesday at Wal-Mart and then brought them to show
employees yesterday some of the things to be on the lookout for.

"They (meth makers) want you to be in fear of them," Whittaker said.
"This is our community, and we need to get involved."

Cookeville Police Officer Brian Long told employees that for about
$500 a meth producer spends at Wal-Mart or any other retail store, he
can make about $10,000 selling the drug.

"This is a new game in Middle Tennessee, and we're behind," Whittaker
said. "We're asking for your help.

"The new ordinance the city's passed is great, but there's loopholes
and ways around it," he said. "It still helps, but we're looking for
deterrents."

Cookeville's ordinance regulates the sale of only ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine, required ingredients in meth production, but a
variety of other ingredients can be used in combination with those
over-the-counter drugs to make meth.

"Making people aware is going to help the most, so they can call us
and we can catch them (meth producers)," Whittaker said.

He said they've worked more than 60 meth labs in Putnam and
surrounding counties since last September.

And he said that hosting classes in the community such as at schools
and churches has helped lead to tips which have led to arrests of
individuals involved in meth production.

* For more information or to request classes about meth awareness,
call Det. Whittaker at 528-8484 or Officer Long at 526-2125.