METH MANUFACTURE ON RISE

Mass-Produced Drug Coming From Mexico

In the last eight months Blount County has seen an increase in
methamphetamine manufacture, a trend that will likely continue.

That's the forecast from speakers at one session of the East Tennessee
Society of Professional Journalists workshop, "Drug Addiction and
Recovery," held Monday at Cornerstone of Recovery in Louisville.

"It's so difficult to police," said Knox County District Attorney General
Randy Nichols. "You can make it in your car."

The drug presents unique problems for law enforcement, according to Capt.
Jimmy Long, assistant chief deputy, Blount County Sheriff's Office.

It's cheap and easy to make. The toxic environment created by meth labs
often requires special teams of officers for meth lab seizure. The cost to
clean up meth lab sites is an average of $8,000 each, said Long.

Officers require additional training, an ongoing process, according to
Long. And inmates who use meth also need additional medical attention.

"The hidden costs of it are something to see," he said.

Long said meth manufacturing has been more common in surrounding counties
like Monroe and Anderson, but two recent busts for manufacture of the drug
show that it is creeping this way. In both cases, the people arrested in
Blount County for making the drug were Monroe County residents.

Mass Produced In Mexico

Nichols said he expects to see more of the drug in both rural and urban
areas. Meth, he said, is now being mass-produced in Mexico.

"I think this is going to work both sides of the drug market," said Long.
"The guy that's just afraid to cook it can go buy it."

There is even a market for the sale of meth users' urine in jails and
prison, as well as the street, according to Nichols.

"There is a market for the urine now," said Nichols, who asked Long, "How
you going to police that, chief? What's next?"

Tennessee accounts for 75 percent of meth lab seizures in the southeast,
according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

To raise awareness, the Tennessee District Attorney's Conference recently
produced a video called "Meth is Death." Nichols showed participants at the
ETSPJ workshop the video, which has interviews with recovering meth
addicts, inmates jailed for meth production and accounts from police officers.

"If we can't educate children not to use it, I don't see how we can
overcome it," he said.

Gov. Phil Bredesen recently introduced legislation aimed at addressing
methamphetamine manufacturing and abuse called the "Meth-Free Tennessee Act
of 2005."

Some major provisions of the bill include limitations on the sale of cold
and sinus medicines containing the decongestant pseudoephedrine, a vital
ingredient used to make meth; closure of the so-called "personal-use
loophole" in criminal law, which allows meth cooks to get lighter penalties
by claiming they manufactured the drug only for personal use; requirement
of health professionals to report meth lab-related burns and injuries to
local law enforcement; creation of an online registry within the state
Department of Environment and Conservation listing properties quarantined
by law enforcement due to meth lab contamination.

War Just Begun

Even with these measures, the war on meth has really just begun, speakers
indicated. The state's first meth-related murder was less than a decade ago
in Warren County.

"I don't think you've seen anything yet," said Nichols.

Monday's ETSPJ workshop, co-sponsored by The Daily Times and Cornerstone of
Recovery, also included sessions on:

* Addiction: the neurobiology, pharmacology, genetics and other approaches
to addiction, Cornerstone of Recovery Medical Director Dr. Gary O'Shaughnessy.

* A brief history of Cornerstone of Recovery, Dan Caldwell, Cornerstone of
Recovery CEO.

* Blount County Drug Court program, Blount County Circuit Court Judge D.
Kelly Thomas Jr.

* Treatment: model, goals, what's needed and what's necessary, Dr. Scott
Anderson, Cornerstone of Recovery Clinical Director.

* A first-person account: addiction and recovery, Steve Wildsmith, Weekend
editor of The Daily Times.

* The business of treatment: the cost of treatment vs. jail, insurance
problems, Mark Hartley, Cornerstone of Recovery Chief Financial Officer.