LAW OFFICERS FIGHT WAR ON MULTIPLE FRONTS

Meth is ugly. The pictures are too graphic to display.

It is the one drug you cannot hide from other people because the
bloody pits in your flesh are too obvious.

Methamphetamine users feel like bugs are crawling under their skin,
and they pick and scratch until all that is left are open sores --
but the bugs were never really there.

Blount County District Attorney Mike Flynn described a poster of a
meth user in Tennessee whose arms are covered in open wounds due to
imaginary "meth bugs."

Flynn said the poster makes most people cringe, but it is used in the
Meth Destroys campaign to catch the attention of youth who may be
thinking of trying meth for the first time.

"When we go out and we show these (posters), adults are immediately
like, 'Ugh, turn that over,"' Flynn said. "The kids are like, 'That's
really gross.' But it seems to get through."

Meth Destroys in an educational campaign about methamphetamine that
was organized by the Tennessee District Attorney General Conference,
and 11 health-care organizations have joined this campaign to fight meth.

Meth is also known as speed, crank, chalk, fire glass, ice, tweak,
uppers, yaba and more. It has been produced heavily in counties in
the Cumberland Plateau area, is being produced in Blount County and
is now being brought up from Mexico with stronger and deadlier
ingredients, Flynn said.

Public Information Officer of the Blount County Sheriff's Office
Marian O'Briant said the 5th Judicial Drug Task Force reported it has
worked 42 cases of people who were promoting methamphetamine
manufacturing since Jan. 1, 2005. Most of those cases have gone
before a grand jury for indictments.

O'Briant said the drug task force has also worked with three cases
involving meth labs, including a mobile meth lab, since Jan. 1, 2005.

According to a press release from the Tennessee District Attorney
General Conference, a growing number of people with meth-related
injuries are showing up in emergency rooms in Tennessee's rural and
urban areas. Meth abusers account for significant costs to hospitals
and health-care providers.

Gov. Phil Bredesen acted in 2005 to stifle the production of meth in
the state when he and the General Assembly enacted laws to restrict
availability of meth's main ingredient, ephedrine or pseudoephedrine,
in pharmacies.

Bredesen and the legislature also allocated $7 million to attack the
state's meth problem. Of this $7 million, $2.4 million was designated
for increased criminal penalties for meth-related crimes.

Flynn said Blount County's District Attorney's Office is approaching
this project from two sides.

On the criminal side, prosecutors are seeking tough penalties for
those convicted on meth-related charges.

On the educational side, they are trying to educate students and
their families on the dangers of meth use and what citizens can do if
they believe a meth lab is in their neighborhood.

Flynn said meth is definitely here but that Blount County is lucky it
has not been hit as hard as on the Cumberland Plateau.

"I give a lot of credit to our law enforcement, who started years ago
building contacts with pharmacists, places like the co-op and other
places people may purchase the ingredients for meth," Flynn said.

According to Flynn, most of the meth seen in our area was "home
cooked." He said the county's law enforcement is now watching out for
what is called "Mexican meth." This more potent form of meth is
manufactured in Mexico and is being shipped north across the U.S. border.

Partners in the Meth Destroys campaign include University of
Tennessee Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
Erlanger Health System, Jackson-Madison County General Hospital,
Methodist Healthcare, Mountain States Health Alliance, Tennessee
Dental Association, Tennessee Dental Hygienists Association,
Tennessee Department of Health, Tennessee Hospital Association,
Tennessee Poison Center and the cities of Nashville, Chattanooga,
Memphis, Jackson and Johnson City.

Flynn said he has been told meth is having a huge impact on
health-care organizations. Vanderbilt Medical Center was recently
overwhelmed with people from the plateau area and west of Nashville
who were burned in the production of meth.

"I've been to a conference and heard them speak on how tremendously
expensive it is to treat people with these severe burns, and
typically, they deal with people without insurance," Flynn said.

The National Association of Counties reported in 2005 that 68 percent
of hospital officials have seen an increase in the number of
meth-related emergency room visits over the past three years.

Under the Meth Free Tennessee Act of 2005, health professionals are
required to report meth lab burns and injuries to local law
enforcement -- similar to the existing requirement for medical
officials to report gunshot and knife wounds.

Flynn said Tennessee's district attorneys are working statewide and
countywide to make sure medical professionals in health organizations
are well informed on identifying and treating cases of meth abuse,
addiction, lab burns and children who are involved in a home with a meth lab.

For law enforcement and health officials in Tennessee, the injury to
the flesh, the damage to families, the cost to society, is too ugly to ignore.