DRUG TASK FORCE FOCUSES ON EDUCATION WITH ENFORCEMENT

In its war on methamphetamine, Cooke County is forging into virtually
uncharted territory with an education campaign.

In continuing its war on methamphetamine in Cooke County, officials from
the city of Gainesville and the county met Tuesday morning to discuss
education, enforcement and legislation regarding the manufactured drug.

"You really are plowing new ground," Neva Lovelace, with the Substance
Abuse Council, told task force members. Wyoming is the only entity
currently with an anti-methamphetamine campaign, she said.

Art work used in that state's campaign also will be used in Cooke County,
with a billboard and posters showing the progressive yearly effects of a
woman hooked on methamphetamine.

"The billboard is scary," Lovelace said.

Posters will be placed in schools and businesses soon after they are
printed. Currently, the billboard is planned to be set up for U.S. Highway
82 by the end of January. The council is paying the art work and billboard
fees.

The posters and the billboard will have contact numbers to report suspected
methamphetamine activity and to request education information, according to
Lovelace.

Officials also discussed effects of curtailing methamphetamine production
in the city and county, which included pending legislation filed by Sen.
Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, that would prohibit over-the-counter sales of
certain forms of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in manufacturing
methamphetamine.

Currently stores in Texas do not have to limit the sale of pseudoephedrine,
but many voluntarily send their customers to the pharmacy to request the
drug instead of leaving it on store shelves.

Gainesville Police Chief Carl Dunlap said calls to the city's anonymous
tips hotline has resulted in busts and monetary awards being given to three
individuals.

"When we started this, we put more officers on the line, and with concern
from the city and the governments coming together did generate more
information coming to us," Dunlap said.

Philip Ray, assistant district attorney, pointed to the recent guilty plea
of Muenster resident Walter Hemmi, 37, on the first-degree felony charge of
possessing a controlled substance with intent to manufacture
methamphetamine over 400 grams. He received a 25-year prison sentence.

However, he also noted problems such as receiving laboratory tests from the
Department of Public Safety in Garland in a timely fashion for indicting
suspected drug manufacturers. He said the Garland testing lab has been
overwhelmed because problems in a Houston lab resulted in it being shut
down. The Houston cases have been transferred to other laboratories around
the state.

Yet changes to that system must go through the Legislature, according to
Ray in regard to questions by Mayor Glenn Locke of establishing a testing
center at North Central Texas College. The district attorney's office must
carefully consider its process so that it can continue to win cases, Cooke
County Sheriff Mike Compton said.

"They win cases because they're rock solid, no errors," he said. "It's a
sound practice what they're doing."

When Locke asked what else the county could be doing, Ray advocated giving
the police and sheriff department's time and the officials would see large
returns in the reduction of methamphetamine production.

Locke agreed by saying, "It's a long-term battle."

In addition to the education and legislation, Compton said there must be
enforcement.

"We have to do it one criminal at a time. Arrest them and put them in
jail," he said. "It still works -- slowly, but it works."

To anonymously report suspected methamphetamine activity, call the police
Crime Tips line at 612-0000 or the county's Crime Stoppers line at
1(800)388-8477.