MORE TOOLS WITH WHICH TO FIGHT METH

Efforts to combat the superaddictive drug methamphetamine got a boost
this week from a new state law that makes key ingredients harder to
get.

Combined with efforts of local residents fighting the drug, the law
should at least slow the spread of the drug here.

The new law puts drugs containing certain ingredients behind the
counter. Buyers of cold and allergy tablets or caplets containing
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine must be at least 18 years old, show
identification and sign a log at the pharmacy. The new law also limits
purchases to no more than two packs at a time or three in a month.

Concerns the measures might frustrate legitimate buyers are a small
price to pay to help protect the public, said state Sen. Tom Apodaca,
R-Laurel Park.

"It is an epidemic in Western North Carolina," said Apodaca, who
supported the law along with N.C. Rep. Carolyn Justus, R-Dana.
"Hopefully this will do something to get it somewhat under control."

Justus had a close encounter with a meth lab that was found in the
Raleigh motel where she was staying during her first season in the
General Assembly in 2003. After the room was secured, police took her
in to see potentially explosive ingredients that meth manufacturers
hide everywhere from car trunks to abandoned or occupied buildings.

"Methamphetamine is just the most dangerous thing that we have going,"
she said. "We have to keep our people safe."

So far Henderson County has not had a major problem with the illegal
labs and their brew of toxic byproducts, Sheriff George H. Erwin Jr.
said.

But the county has seen a drastic increase in use of
meth.

Last year, local officers investigated 122 meth cases and seized more
than $200,000 worth of the drug. In the first six months of this year,
officers worked 67 meth cases and confiscated supplies of the drug
valued at more than $220,000. That's an alarming rise from 1999, when
the sheriff's department investigated only six cases and seized $3,855
worth of meth.

A group of educators, social workers, counselors, nurses and law
officers have come together in Henderson County to fight meth on
several fronts.

Jane Ferguson, chief executive officer of Appalachian Counseling,
organized the task force in response to the rapid rise in meth
addiction here. She estimates 80 to 90 percent of people in
Appalachian Counseling's substance abuse programs are being treated
for meth.

The group is meeting regularly to develop protocols for health and
other professionals to follow in circumstances where they suspect meth
may be used. For instance, public health nurses who visit homes need a
way to gauge how much suspicion warrants a call to law
enforcement.

No doubt such questions will raise concerns from civil libertarians.
But the task force is right to find out the answers to equip all
agencies with the tools they need to safely do their jobs, and to
protect the public and children who may be endangered by meth.