METH TARGETED IN STATE INITIATIVES

Local motel workers learn how to deal with the dangers from drug labs.

When Randal Miller or any member of his housekeeping staff clean a
hotel room, they have to watch where they put their hands. "We've been
finding needles," said Miller, acting manager of a local hotel. "We're
finding them behind the Kleenex boxes. We have to be very careful."

Miller said the hotel, which he asked not be named, experiences
occasional drug traffic - much of it related to methamphetamine.

"We have people come in and they're getting adjoining rooms," Miller
said after attending a Tuesday meeting for area hotel and motel
workers to teach them how to notice and report criminal activity.
"They'll sleep in one and sell or cook out of the other. We're trying
to learn how we can stop it."

Last year, Missouri led the nation in shutting down meth-producing
labs, 2,800 of them. That helped prompt Gov. Bob Holden to create two
new task forces to battle the devastating drug known for its low
prices and long-term highs. He announced his plans Tuesday.

The new programs were formed, by executive order, to help prevent meth
use through education and to develop treatment programs. The governor
also expanded the focus of an existing task force to address dangers
that meth labs present to officers and the environment.

"We are doing an excellent job shutting down these meth labs, but we
need to educate and prevent children from taking the drug," Holden
said in a prepared statement. "We also must treat those who are
already addicted."

The governor made his announcement the same day Springfield police
held the meeting for hotel and motel workers.

"Springfield's No. 2 in the state for meth production," said police
Sgt. Troy Smith. "Kansas City is No. 1 in the country for meth labs."

Capt. Ron Replogle of the Missouri Highway Patrol said education and
treatment are natural offshoots of the 5-year-old Clandestine Lab Task
Force.

"I think our task force has done a very good job in the enforcement
area, and (we) developed a cleanup program that's nationally
recognized," he said. "So we were starting to look into some of those
other issues."

The reorganized Clandestine Lab Task Force is now known as the
Missouri Methamphetamine Enforcement and Environmental Protection Task
Force. The group will focus on the safety of officers who raid meth
labs and environmental effects of the labs.

Members of the task forces will meet in April at a meth summit in
Kansas City. Police, prosecutors, teachers, doctors and others will
also attend.

Psychologist Paul Thomlinson, vice president of research at Burrell
Behavioral Health Center, said he applauds the governor's
education-and-treatment approach to the meth battle.

"We'll never be able to arrest our way out of this problem,"
Thomlinson said. "Without treatment, these folks (meth addicts) end up
going down a very bad road."

Thomlinson helped conduct a study several years ago that addressed the
meth problem.

"We looked at and gathered data from heavy users of methamphetamine,"
he said. "One of the questions we asked was. 'What might have helped
you not get involved with meth?'

"People told us they needed more education about this - the dangerous
chemicals they'd be taking into their bodies, the aftereffects. They
said it might have helped them stay away if they'd known more."

Springfield police Officer Nathan Thomas also said it's imperative to
educate the community on the dangers of meth.

"We're always looking for an opportunity to get the information out,"
Thomas said. "The more people we have out there looking for it, the
more we can intervene."

Last year, Holden signed into law a Republican-sponsored bill that
toughened penalties for manufacturing drugs near schools and homes
where children live. The law also limits the sale of over-the-counter
drugs containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, prime ingredients in
the manufacture of meth.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder said Democrats and Republicans
find common ground fighting illegal drugs. "It has not been a partisan
issue," he said.