DEADLY METH LABS GROW IN COUNTY, STATE

While Blount County is not infested with methamphetamine labs like
nearby Anderson and Roane counties, the problem is definitely here.

``It's in our area bad ... in Townsend,'' said Townsend Police Chief
Ronnie Suttles. ``Meth is slow death. Meth lab operators are slick.
It's here in this county and the surrounding area. We need your help.
If you know somebody on this, call somebody.''

Jerry Orr, a Blount County Sheriff's Office narcotics investigator
assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Knoxville and the 5th
Judicial District Task Force, presented a seminar on meth labs
recently in Townsend.

Many rental hotel and cabin owners in the Townsend area attended the
seminar at Townsend Visitors Center to gain insight into what to look
for to determine whether a meth lab is or has been located on their
property.

``Most people who make methamphetamine are users. They sell just
enough to put a little money in their pockets,'' Orr said.

``Meth labs started appearing in the U.S. in the early '70s in
California as the primary source of income for Hell's Angels,'' Orr
said. ``It is known as crank because the motorcycle gang members put
it in the crankcases of their bikes to transport it across the country
to sell at places like bike meets.''

While meth labs started on the West Coast and spread across the entire
nation, ``Tennessee, for the third year in a row, has led the nation
in the number of meth labs discovered,'' Orr said. ``The Chattanooga
area is overwhelmed with meth labs.''

Because meth cooking leaves a chemical smell like nail polish remover,
manufacturers prefer remote, rural areas, a requirement that is
ideally suited for the mountains and hollows of East Tennessee.

On a scale of one to 10, Orr estimated the problem in Blount County
would rate a five or six.

The DEA, which covers 49 counties in Eastern Tennessee, works over 300
meth labs a year, up from 50 in 2000.

This year three meth labs have been destroyed in Blount County, none
in the Townsend area.

People cooking meth would rather do it on someone else's property to
avoid having their housing seized if they get caught by the law, Orr
said.

Campground operators should also be on the lookout for meth labs.
``APD (Alcoa Police Department) stopped a guy on Alcoa Highway that
had hit campgrounds in Crossville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and
Townsend who had everything to make meth in the back of his truck,''
Orr said.

Suttles estimated that 99 percent of the break-ins and petty thefts in
the area are caused by meth users/cookers.

Two women from another county were recently arrested for allegedly
shoplifting several items that are ingredients in the meth-making
process, including cold tablets, from a Blount County business.

In their car, officers discovered additional medication for colds and
allergies for a total of 1,200 pills.

Orr said that 90 percent of the time these people pay in cash, and he
urged that vacation rental agents require a photo ID.

The man who rented out the cabin where the Townsend meth lab was found
last year, stated that he never saw the license plates of either the
car or truck the renters, a man and woman who posed as a married
couple, drove because they always backed the vehicles up to the rental
unit.

The problem exists in counties all across the nation. Meth is so
easily manufactured that almost all of the drug in the United States
is produced in this country.

Stimulates brain

Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that affects the central
nervous system.

``Meth is 10 times more addictive to the users we've talked to than
crack cocaine,'' Orr said.

It causes wakefulness, increased physical activity, decreased
appetite, increased respiration, hypothermia and euphoria.

One man Orr's team of seven investigators arrested ``had been awake
for 40 days. It took four of us to get him to the hospital. After he
went through detoxification he slept 41/2 days in jail and didn't know
where he was when he finally woke up,'' he said.

``The life expectancy of meth users is five to seven years. If used
enough it will shut down all your vital organs,'' Orr said.

``Meth users shoot it, snort it, take it orally or smoke it. A man
arrested in Morgan County put it in his coffee every morning and he'd
go (be high) for 18 hours.''