LAW OFFICIALS FROM N.C. TELL METH STORIES TO CONGRESS

Watauga Sheriff Among Those Sounding Alarm

WASHINGTON North Carolina law enforcement took center stage yesterday in
the national battle against methamphetamine use.

Sheriff Mark Shook of Watauga County and Chief Deputy Phil Byers of
Rutherford County joined other law-enforcement officials from around the
country before a key House subcommittee to discuss what many referred to as
the "scourge" of their communities - methamphetamine use.

"It's a community problem, its not a law-enforcement problem because
everyone in the community has to deal with it," Shook said.

Byers agreed.

"Methamphetamine addicts and 'cooks' are driving some of Rutherford
County's most costly social problems, including domestic violence, child
abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and the spread of hepatitis and AIDS,"
he said.

Methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that deceives people
into thinking that they have limitless stamina while it drains the body of
energy. The euphoria gives way to depression, brain damage and other problems.

It is made using a chemical process to convert pseudo-ephedrine, which is
found in over-the-counter medications. Recipes can be found on the
Internet. Law-enforcement officers like to joke that any idiot can make
methamphetamine, but most people learn the four-hour "cook" process from
someone who already knows how.

The House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources
invited officials from across the country to talk about methamphetamine use
because the members say they are not getting enough information from the
federal government on how the illicit drug can be stopped and how it is
affecting their communities.

"Methamphetamine use has become the scourge of the area I care so much
about," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, a member of the committee.

In addition to the local law-enforcement officials, federal officials from
the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Drug Enforcement Agency
testified. They acknowledged a problem, but their answers and solutions did
not satisfy lawmakers.

"This is not a new drug that just burst out on the scene," said Rep. Mark
Souder, R-Ind., the subcommittee chairman. "We see no national coordinated
methamphetamine strategy."

The one thing that was clear from the testimony yesterday is that children
are often those who are most hurt by the drug, even if they aren't using it.

Legislators listened attentively as one official after the other told
heartbreaking stories of children who have been abused and neglected
because their parents were using the drug. Some talked of children
"Dumpster diving" for food because their parents were preoccupied with the
drug use.

An official from Tennessee spoke of a 17-year-old who had to live at home
with his methamphetamine-abusing parents after he had a liver transplant.

Shook talked about Breanna and James Chambers, who were kidnapped at
gunpoint in January by their biological parents from foster care. Their
parents, James Canter and Alisha Ann Chambers, lost custody when they were
charged with operating a methamphetamine lab in Watauga County.

"Four days, an Amber Alert, and one car chase later, we recovered the
children, thankfully unharmed," he said.

In 2004, 124 children in North Carolina were removed from homes where
methamphetamine was in use, Byers said.

The drug problem, which began in California and has slowly moved east over
the past 20 years, is typically most common in rural regions among
lower-income people, officials said.

"Rural America needs help," said Don Owens, the police chief of Titusville
in western Pennsylvania.

"It needs someone to listen to us, to help."