METHBUSTERS UP THE ANTE IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced three local residents
to hefty stints in prison for their involvement in the manufacturing,
sale or distribution of methamphetamine in the Paris area. These
sentences ranged from 12 years, seven months to 30 years. No
"good-time credit" is available because the convictions came in federal court.

The judgments, along with a number of others handed down earlier this
year, were the culmination of a coordinated, two-year-long initiative
involving local, state and federal law enforcement departments
throughout the region dubbed Methbusters by its organizers.

We applaud their efforts and urge a continuation of such efforts to
combat this most insidious of social evils. We are especially pleased
to see how the involvement of federal law enforcement personnel and
resources have upped the ante in the fight against methamphetamine.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in 2002,
more than 12 million Americans had reported using meth at least once
in their life with 597,000 of these people have used it in the last
month before the survey was taken.

Once thought to be primarily a drug-of-choice for white men living in
rural areas, meth is rapidly spreading throughout the county and
across all demographic boundaries. Use of the drug causes
deterioration of the heart and blood vessels, especially the small
blood vessels in the brain, leading to cardiac irregularities,
seizures, stroke and brain damage, all possibly fatal.

The production of meth is just as dangerous. The production of one
pound of meth results in 5 to 7 pounds of toxic waste and drains
millions of dollars in clean-up costs from communities across the nation.

Lately, a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers have announced plans
to reformulate over-the-counter cold medicines, replacing
pseudoephedrine - which can be boiled down and combined with toxic
chemicals to produce methamphetamine - with phenylephrine, a
structurally-similar drug that is virtually impossible to render into
meth. This comes on the heels of action by several states and many
communities restricting the amount of medicines containing
pseudoephedrine that can be bought by consumers and tighter
record-keeping on the part of retailers on the amounts and purchase
patterns of such products.

Making pseudoephedrine harder to obtain has already proved effective.
According to the ONDCP, states that have enacted such measures have
seen as much as a 50 percent drop in the number of clandestine meth
lab operations. Making pseudoephedrine even scarcer can only bolster
the fight against meth, and we urge all pharmaceutical houses to
adopt these measures.

Putting drug runners away more frequently and for longer sentences,
and making the components of methamphetamine harder to get are just
two of the weapons in the fight against drug abuse. We must continue
to teach people of the dangers of drug use, making sure that the
message get out to users and potential users. To that end, The Paris
News pledges its support to the fight.