TACKLING SCOURGE OF METHAMPHETAMINE

Imagine This Scene In Your Junior High School Daughter's Class:

A police officer who's there to talk about methamphetamine problems
quizzes the class. He asks how many students either had seen meth or
knew a family member who had been on it or involved with it in some
form. And all 28 girls raise their hands.

Hard to believe, but that's what happened when Leesburg Assistant
Police Chief Lanny Ransom went to Gaylesville in Cherokee County last
year. Methamphetamine has become that big a scourge in many areas of
the state.

It's good, then, that Alabama Attorney General Troy King has formed a
task force to fight the manufacture and use of methamphetamines, also
known as "meth" and "crystal meth."

King's 26-member group will make its top priority developing a policy
to help children found in homes where meth is made. A real problem
with this particular drug is that it is made with readily available
chemicals, including nasal decongestants.

Because it is easy to gather the materials to make the drug, meth labs
are found in homes, storage sheds, even vehicles. The federal Drug
Enforcement Administration rates meth as Alabama's No.1 drug threat.

Little wonder. Law officers in DeKalb and Cherokee counties in
northeast Alabama report they found 130 meth labs last year, and that
90 percent of all felonies in those counties had a meth connection. In
Covington County in the south, law officers found 186 labs in the past
four years. And just last week, police raided a house in Tarrant that
may be the largest ever meth lab found in Jefferson County.

Another problem with methamphetimine labs is that they are dangerous
to adults and children living in the homes where they're located - and
to nearby neighbors, as well. The chemicals used can create poisonous
fumes and the possibility of an explosion.

It's good that King's task force, made up of prosecutors, law
officers, doctors and child advocates, among others, will first focus
on the impact to children.

More and more children are being taken into state custody because of
the increasing number of meth labs. The House already has passed a
bill that would make it a crime even to expose a child to a meth lab,
with sentences of up to 10 years; there's a stronger penalty if the
child is injured by the chemicals resulting from meth production.

The one ingredient King doesn't provide is additional resources to
focus on the problem. Without the resources to support the task
force's recommendations, this could be just another of the many
studies on various problems in Alabama that ends up sitting on a shelf.

Let's hope King, the members of the task force and the public don't
let that happen.

Troy KingThe attorney general's task force will make its top priority
developing a policy to help children found in homes where meth is made.