EDUCATION CALLED KEY IN METH WAR

Annual Summit Promotes Holden's Initiatives, Creates Professional Network.

Kansas City - In 2003, 3,214 Missourians were admitted to state-approved
drug-treatment programs for methamphetamine abuse. But that's just a
fraction of the tens of thousands of people across the state whose lives
continue to be devastated by the drug, state officials said.

"Ultimate success is no meth," Gov. Bob Holden told those gathered
Wednesday morning at the Adam's Mark Hotel for the annual Governor's Meth
Summit Conference.

Nearly 300 people - from local law-enforcement officers and firefighters to
high-ranking state officials - attended the four-day conference designed to
promote Holden's meth initiatives and to create a network of professionals
to battle the drug.

Late last year, the governor created two new task forces dealing with
prevention and meth treatment. Additionally, he reorganized an existing
task force to tackle the environmental challenges facing law-enforcement
officers and others who handle the hazardous materials used in the
manufacturing of meth and the drug's byproducts.

The Springfield Police Department was one of 22 agencies throughout the
state honored by the governor for its work in cleaning up meth labs.

"My investigators are good at investigating these things and breaking them
open," said Springfield Police Department Lt. Ron Hartman. "The aftermath
and the cleanup is a real difficult thing to deal with."

Greene County was listed fourth in the state - behind Jefferson, Jasper and
Franklin counties - in the number of labs reported.

Lectures at the conference addressed such topics as the effects meth has on
children, educating elementary school students about the dangers of the
drug to officer safety, and effectively prosecuting meth cases.

Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore, who attended the conference, said
he feels Springfield and Greene County are ahead of the curve when it comes
to dealing with meth, but much work is needed to care for children found in
homes where the drug is being produced.

"We need to develop protocols, standards and tests to protect these kids,"
the prosecutor said. "We need to come up with a system that allows us to
get these children decontaminated and monitor them. We don't know what
happens to them over a long period of time."

In 2003, 437 children were found at meth labs in Missouri, according to the
National Clandestine Lab Database. That year, four children under age 5
suffered meth-related deaths.

There is an initiative in the Ozarks to create a Drug Endangered Child team
that would work to provide care to children found in such situations.

Melissa Haddow of Community Partnership of the Ozarks, said her
organization just received a $137,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation of
Health to increase meth awareness.

"We want to do training for landlords and homeowners so they know what to
look for to see if a meth lab has been in their home. We want to educate
children on what to avoid, how to know what a lab looks like so they don't
go picking one up."

Clay Goddard, environmental and community health planner for the
Springfield-Greene County Health Department, said he is working to create a
series of guidelines landlords and homeowners need to take should a lab be
discovered in their home.

The guidelines will be part of a newly adopted Springfield City Council
bill designed to mandate hazardous-material cleanup.

"If we had a hazard issue, we could react as a department under force of
law in a rapid manner," Goddard said, adding that while attending the
conference he met people from other states that have similar laws.

"I heard some things ... that could be the final piece of the puzzle," he
said. "What we want to keep from happening is a meth lab being found in a
home and new people moving in the next week."

Goddard said when meth is being manufactured in a home, the byproducts get
into the air and can settle on almost every surface in the home. The
question that remains as to how intensive a cleanup should be.

Do homeowners simply bleach, mop and vacuum? Or do they rip up carpet and
break down the drywall?

"It's an unknown," Goddard said. "But I've found out here that there are
people working on answers."