IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE IS KEY TO METH PROBLEMS

Attorney General Roy Cooper and the state legislature should be
commended for enacting a new law that took effect a week ago and
restricts the sale and availability of over-the-counter medicines,
such as Sudafed, which contain pseudoephedrine - the key ingredient
of the recipe for making methamphetamine.

The pseudoephedrine law, initially enacted in Oklahoma and
subsequently passed in more than a dozen states, certainly appears to
have had a positive impact on reducing the number of local
mom-and-pop meth labs within those states, which have increased
exponentially in recent years.

These labs, which can be operated out of homes, motel rooms and even
automobiles, create dangerous environments for those involved or near
the site. The toxic chemicals used in the meth-making process put
entire neighborhoods at risk. But the toxicity of the process has
also been proven to be devastating to those in direct proximity - all
too often children in the home where a lab is functioning.

Curbing the availability of the ingredients needed to manufacture
meth is a worthwhile endeavor - even if it means the average citizen
experiences much more difficulty in purchasing cold and allergy
medicines. But while the law will likely reduce the number of illegal
and volatile labs in North Carolina and in Haywood County, which had
the third highest total of the 100 counties in the state in 2005, it
does not solve the root problem of meth use.

Oklahoma has seen a 90-percent decrease in its discoveries of meth
labs in 15 months after the pseudoephedrine law was enacted. But
during that same time period, meth trafficking within Oklahoma's
borders has skyrocketed 500 percent.

Meth users, like all drug users, will find a way to get the substance
to which they are so desperately addicted. And while statistics prove
meth use has by no means reached epidemic proportions, it is a
problem that should and must be addressed.

So, what is the answer? In reality, there is no fool-proof way to
totally eliminate any type of drug use from society. Each individual
user must want to stop and choose to seek help in doing so. As a
society, one way we can help is to provide effective treatment to
addicts who need and want to be treated. We must also allocate
resources to preventative measures, social services, education, job
training, and jobs. Meth, although it can certainly affect anyone
anywhere, is an economic problem - the better someone's life, the
more chances someone has for a good life, the less likely they are to
choose to destroy themselves with meth.

Haywood County's recently formed task force, coupled with a new
treatment initiative being implemented as a pilot project in four
areas throughout the state (including here), is exactly the right
approach to solving the riddle of meth use. With every agency
cooperating and tackling the issue from every possible angle -
prevention, education, awareness, and economics, and now with
treatment as a real option, we might just be able to help those
trapped in the world of meth addiction and be able to prevent the
many more that would eventually find themselves there.