NONUSERS HAVE BIG STAKE IN METH'S POPULARITY

Taxpayers Dish Out $3,280 for Average Cleanup

CHATTANOOGA - Taxpayers have a big stake in the growing popularity of
methamphetamine: the cost of cleaning up after people who get caught
making the synthetic stimulant, usually in rural areas.

While city dwellers are typically far removed from the human cost -
children exposed to the toxic vapors of household chemicals and the
hazard of fires and explosions while they are cooking - the national
average cost of cleaning up each lab is $3,280.

In Tennessee alone, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency records show 525 labs
were seized in the first six months of fiscal 2003, 724 the previous
year, 630 in fiscal 2001 and 236 in fiscal 2000.

Using the national average, those cleanups - by hired crews wearing
hazardous materials protection suits - cost the government a total of
$6.9 million.

DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said Congress gave the agency $20 million
last year for state and local agencies to clean up methamphetamine
labs that are found in home kitchens, backyard sheds and even motel
rooms.

"Not only do you have the problem of the drug use and drug addiction
but the problem of the clandestine lab itself," Glaspy said in a
telephone interview. "You've got issues with kids being in labs ...
people pouring this stuff out. You've got contamination issues that
you don't necessarily have with drugs imported into the country."

DEA special agent David Shelton said last week at a meeting of the
Southeast Tennessee Council on Children and Youth that "our tax
dollars" were footing the cost to clean up the labs. He said owners
of property where labs are discovered were notified that "there may
be residual chemicals" that are their responsibility.

Shelton said he was unsure if there were follow-up tests after
cleanups of contaminated property to detect potentially
life-threatening residues, such as phosphine.

He said chemicals used to make methamphetamine - including red
phosphorous from matchbook striking plates, ephedrine from cold
tablets and fuel line antifreeze - could be purchased in stores and by
mail order. He said some retailers had started notifying law
enforcement agencies about suspicious purchases of such items.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Laymon described the drug making in
southeastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia and northeastern Alabama
as "primarily a Caucasian phenomenon." He said there also were
"large, organized Mexican and Cuban drug gangs" transporting large
quantities of methamphetamine to the region.

He told the dozens of social services, child protection, courts,
health and law enforcement agency employees at the meeting that some
users say the drug initially is an aphrodisiac, reduces appetite and
boosts energy. He said some users say it keeps them awake for up to
two weeks at a time. Users quickly become addicted and become paranoid
and develop sores.

Odorous vapors from cooking - sometimes on kitchen stoves - the
hazardous chemicals cause respiratory problems, headaches, nausea,
rashes and sores. Exposure can cause loss of consciousness and even
death, and the labs sometimes explode and burn.

Long-term meth use can create paranoia and hallucinations.

State records show that Tennessee child protective services have taken
custody of more than 600 children from parents involved with
methamphetamine since the start of 2002, also mostly in rural
communities.

Tennessee's first statewide methamphetamine conference is scheduled
for Dec. 1-3 in Nashville.

Glaspy said an eastward migration of methamphetamine was continuing
since it first turned up decades ago in California. He said a DEA
agent was shot recently in Philadelphia in a case involving the drug.

"We're hoping that it doesn't" become a problem in major cities, he
said. "We are monitoring it closely."

He said some methamphetamine labs had been found "in the state of New
York. We are starting to see that. Every state has been affected by
it."