GROUP TEACHES DANGERS OF METH

Gasps and low murmurs filled the room as images of children with terrible
burns on them, burned houses and gaunt figures with rotting teeth flashed
on the projection screen.

These images were not the result of a freak accident, or even a horror
movie, but the consequence of what some are calling an epidemic spreading
throughout West Tennessee - methamphetamine, commonly known as meth.

A group known as the Tennessee Association for Family and Community
Education is fighting back by educating themselves and the public on the
hazards of meth.

The West Tennessee district of TAFCE met Tuesday at the University of
Tennessee Agricultural Center in Jackson to learn how to spot the signs of
a meth lab and meth user.

The Tennessee Army National Guard Counter-drug Division gave a presentation
on chemicals used in the production of meth, what a meth lab looks like,
victims of meth lab explosions and the features of people on meth.

Myra Storey, president of TAFCE, said the purpose of the seminar was for
members to learn about meth so that educational programs could be created
for each of their respective communities.

The idea is based on Gov. Phil Bredesen's Methwatch program emphasizing
education on the drug's effects and dangers, Storey said.

"The epidemic in Tennessee is of preposterous amounts," Storey said. "Last
year 550 children were removed from homes because of laboratories and meth
being found in the home."

Sgt. Tom Duckworth, with the Tennessee Army National Guard Counter-drug
Division, said Tennessee is a meth lab hot spot.

"I'd say it's a bad problem," Duckworth said. "Nationally, Tennessee ranks
No. 2 in the nation in reported meth labs. There is a major problem in West
Tennessee, and it increases every day."

Duckworth said retailers who knowingly sell meth ingredients to meth-lab
operators also can be prosecuted.

Sgt. Jarrett Kitts, also a member of the Counter-Drug Division, said people
who suspect a meth lab should report it to local authorities or contact
Methwatch at (877) TNN-METH.

Methwatch is a program that links several Tennessee law enforcement
agencies together to battle the meth problem, Kitts said.

Meth labs and meth users are moving farther east, Kitts said. The drug
originally came from Mexico and California in the late 1980s and early
1990s, but quickly began to spread throughout the West and Midwest, and
continues to spread east.

"Nationally, Tennessee ranks No. 2 in the nation in reported meth labs.
There is a major problem in West Tennessee, and it increases every day."

Tom Duckworth,Tennessee Army National Guard