MESSING WITH METH

METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE is a drug problem that can't be ignored. Not only is
the drug dangerous and sometimes deadly, meth labs often catch fire or
explode, hurting or killing occupants and neighbors.

State law already limits sales of the key ingredient - pseudoephedrine,
commonly found in cold and allergy medicines. Chatham County commissioners
don't need to put restrictions on the other ingredients.

It's good that commissioners are concerned about methamphetamine. Abusers
risk serious health complications, and possible death, just to get high.
And the people who make this stuff put themselves, their families and their
neighbors at risk.

It takes a lot of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in cold and allergy
medicines, to make meth. Under Georgia law, stores carrying these products
keep them behind the counter or in locked cases, and limit the amount a
customer can buy.

No one, even with a major cold, needs to ever purchase the amounts required
to make meth.

But many of the other items, such as anhydrous ammonia, a common
fertilizer, and denatured alcohol, used in cleaning and wood finishing, are
often needed in large amounts. To place purchase limits on these products
for law-abiding people is overkill.

Drug abusers may be stupid, but they also are dedicated. If access to their
drug of choice is cut off, most addicts will find another way.

Just as someone found that mixing cold medicine with a few other common
ingredients could produce meth, abusers will find another combination that
gives them a high - if it doesn't kill them. That may be the only way to
stop them from abusing drugs.

Society will never completely eliminate some people's irrational craving
for a drug high. Still, the law that limits access to pseudoephedrine makes
it more difficult for them to make meth.

If county commissioners want to have an impact on drug abuse in Chatham
County, they should support the Counter Narcotics Team - financially and
vocally - rather than restrict innocent people from getting the farming or
cleaning supplies they need.