DRUG DORM

If Found Guilty, Young Deserve No Mercy For Meth Lab

Local and federal law enforcement officials should come down hard on those
students arrested for having methamphetamine lab equipment in a dorm room
on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus if they are found guilty
of the charges against them.

This is no silly college prank by a group of immature students. Meth labs
are extremely dangerous, and the drug they produce is highly addictive.

Even now, authorities are deciding whether to prosecute the case at the
federal level. They should. If those accused are found guilty, they deserve
the full measure of the law.

The residence hall where the arrests were made this week houses more than
110 students. Meth labs can create an environmental disaster. The fumes
from the chemicals used to make the drug can cause a variety of health
problems, including skin rashes and lung irritation. The chemicals have
been linked to lung cancer as well.

Those same chemicals are very flammable and corrosive, and can explode.
This is not kid stuff.

If the students were running a meth lab in their dorm room, they were
putting any number of other students in jeopardy. That's not acceptable.
The young adults arrested 21-year-old Sarah Suzanne Forrest of Boynton
Beach, Fla.; 22-year-old Derrick Michael Vann of Trussville; and
23-year-old James William Phillips of Hueytown were charged with possession
of controlled substances and drug paraphernalia. Authorities said they
found glassware, chemicals and other items used to make meth in the dorm,
along with marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs and other controlled
substances.

Officials at UAB must explore ways to make sure dorms aren't being used as
meth labs by students or anybody else. That's a given.

But if the young people charged in this incident are found guilty of
turning a dorm room into a meth lab, they must be given the maximum penalty
as an example for other students.

Meth labs are extremely dangerous, even when they are located in the
country, away from other people. The product they produce is a scourge on
society.

To set one up in a college residence hall is an ultimate, irresponsible action.