METH LABS

An ominous warning sign?

Perhaps the worst news about the methamphetamine laboratory that state
police raided in Groton last Wednesday was that it wasn't a rarity in rural,
Upstate New York.

Since 1999, officials with the New York State Police said they had uncovered
at least 150 illicit methamphetamine production facilities, including 56
such laboratories scattered through Chemung, Otsego and Tioga counties --
and now two in Tompkins County.

Unlike other illegal substances such as cocaine and heroin, methamphetamines
do not have to be smuggled across international borders or from far-away
places. Instead, methamphetamine is fairly easy to produce anywhere from
common, easily obtainable chemicals.

Police officials have linked this drug with struggling rural economies and
the associated poverty --two issues that plague pockets of many Upstate New
York counties.

Even more disconcerting is police investigators' observations that
methamphetamine, also called "meth," is becoming a preferred drug among many
rural, lower income residents.

"Like any drug, meth does cut across socioeconomic boundaries and it is not
exclusive to a single group. But meth is definitely a rural, lower-income
white drug," said Lt. Patrick Garey of the New York State Community
Narcotics Enforcement Team.

"Nobody has done a study of the educational background of meth users, but
the people who are arrested for dealing or manufacturing methamphetamines
are definitely from the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Is that
because the educational avenues open to them are less than those of middle-
and upper-class people? I don't know."

Observations such as Lt. Garey's illustrate a downside of larger economic
national problems. Job outsourcing, foreign competition, rising costs of
business and other factors create a snowball effect of layoffs, diminishing
economic opportunities, increasing burdens on county social services and
crime.

What can local governments do to combat these larger national and
multinational economic trends? Sometimes, there is little they can do. Gov.
George Pataki was unsuccessful in trying to save more than 1,000
manufacturing jobs in nearby Onondaga County earlier this year, when Carrier
air conditioning decided to close its New York manufacturing facilities and
move them to China.

The issues of outsourcing and trade are best battled at the federal level.
Yet in terms of the unfortunate outcomes of rural poverty -- which
methamphetamine abuse is but one facet -- there still is much that can be
done here in New York.

In Albany, Pataki and legislative leaders such as Senate Majority Leader
Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
(D-Manhattan) must not forget Upstate public schools and rural county social
service agencies when they make decisions about where to allocate billions
of dollars each year.

When state officials cut funding or impose more burdens on local schools or
social service agencies, they foreclose opportunities for rural New Yorkers
and many others. There are fewer enrichment programs for students falling
behind and there are fewer counselors to steer poverty stricken families
toward more productive uses of their time, to name a few.

At the local level, governments should do all they can to help retain
existing businesses while nurturing expanding enterprises that can put more
people to work in good jobs.

Case in point: The Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency's recent
decision to provide tax abatements to C&D Assembly of Groton, which has
doubled its work force in a year. Those abatements will help C&D expand its
production capacity -- and its payroll. Such actions help reverse the trends
of job losses and poverty, one business at a time.

Given the condition of the state's economy, there is little chance of
generosity from Albany this year. So that means our local social service
agencies and schools must redouble their efforts to ensure that vital
services are maintained at the highest possible levels despite tighter
budgets.

Similarly, our schools need to keep rural youth from lower income
backgrounds on their radar screens. College-bound or not, these rural youth
are "at risk" to the same degree as their urban counterparts.

The background causes of drug abuse that police have detailed are the same
everywhere young adults life: lack of opportunities, despair, a sense of
powerlessness, a lack of education and diminishing economic options.

If those causes are left to fester, drug abuse will spread, whether it is on
busy downtown street corners or on dirt roads out in the country.