BREDESEN HEARS METH HORROR STORIES

CLEVELAND - Almost everyone in East Tennessee would agree that
methamphetamine is one of the most serious problems the state - and
the Southeast - has ever faced.

The shocking revelation of a 12-year-old user, a user's confession and
a legislator's account of his childhood as a relative of a user were
stories heard Thursday when the Governor's Roundtable on
Methamphetamine Abuse was held at Cleveland State Community College.

That the roundtable discussion was so candid indicates how deeply the
meth problem is beginning to affect every citizen of the state.

The solution to the problem is multifaceted and could include strictly
limiting access to ingredients used, harsher state penalties, more
resources for treatment and a statewide public meth awareness and
education campaign, according to panelists at the roundtable.

Legislators, attorneys, prosecutors, a former addict, law enforcement
officers and health professionals from across Southeast Tennessee met
here Thursday with Gov. Phil Bredesen to discuss potential ways to
address the state's continually growing methamphetamine problem.

Limiting access to psuedoephedrine, or over-the-counter medications
containing ephedrine, would be the most damaging blow to meth
manufacturing in Tennessee, according to a consensus among those present.

However, help for users of methamphetamine also drew considerable
discussion.

Bredesen opened the meeting with a question and continued questioning
the panel throughout the almost two-hour discussion, asking about
specific problems in the Bradley, Hamilton, Polk, McMinn area. Members
of the DEA, TBI, U.S. Attorney's office, and 10th Judicial District
Attorney General's office were representing prosecutors in the region.

Local Children's Advocacy Center Director Teresa Grant told about the
impact of meth use and manufacturing on the children in the region.

She told Bredesen a case she called an "eye-opener" crossed the CAC's
doorstep a couple of months ago.

"We're seeing the first 12-year-old as a user," Grant
said.

According to Grant, the child was ingesting the drug by snorting
it.

Grant went on to describe CAC's involvement with younger children who
have experienced a home life so rife with meth they know the
ingredients and the manufacturing process.

"They can tell you what goes in it. They can show you where their
burns are."

Grant said the Tennessee Department of Children's Services works hard
to put children referred to the CAC in safe living environments when
parents have been arrested on meth charges.

"While using the drugs, the parents pose a much greater danger," she
said.

Children of meth users and cookers live in a world where the drug is a
priority, and the children's health suffers, their education suffers
and the emotional damage could linger a lifetime, Grant said.

"And if your parents cooked that night at the foot of the bed, how can
they focus when they go to school the next day?"

Grant said training specific to the methamphetamine problem should be
implemented statewide to everyone who can become involved in a meth
abuser's life.

State Sen. Jeff Miller (R-Cleveland) observed that the children in the
region are becoming victims of the meth epidemic at the increasing
rate. Miller said enacting legislation to require limited access to
medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine should be a
priority when the General Assembly next convenes.

Miller said requiring a store's customer to sign their name or provide
identification of some kind to make a purchase of ephedrine products
was a "small price to pay."

"I think we need to do something in January," he told
Bredesen.

State Rep. Chris Newton (R-Turtletown) suggested bolstering meth
enforcement by reinforcing the TBI with increased focus on drug
enforcement, specifically targeting meth.

He said adding drug agents to the TBI ranks should be a
priority.

Law enforcement in McMinn and Meigs counties have complained for the
past several years that state law doesn't match needs in drug cases.

Panelists discussed the "revolving door" that emerges when a meth user
get busted for possession, makes a small bond, then goes out and
furthers his habit, gets arrested again, makes another bond, continues
using more and more meth, or becoming a "cooker" in some instances,
and is always making bond while the addiction grows worse.

"We'll still be processing the lab and they're already getting out (on
bond) and are waiting for us to finish so they can get back in their
house," said one agent.

A drug case can take six months to a year from the time of the arrest
to be resolved in state criminal courts. Most meth arrestees continue
using meth, deepening the addiction as each case drags through the
court system, only to end with a small amount of jail time and probation.

State law enforcement's only recourse has been federal
court.

U.S. Attorney Paul Layman, of the federal office in Chattanooga, said
federal court's caseload has "multiplied" with dockets swelling with
meth cases.

The U.S. Attorney's office qualifies states cases before accepting
them for federal prosecution.

"If there's an explosion or fire, we will almost always take the
case," he said.

Layman said cases will be federally prosecuted when a child is
injured, child pornography is present, the defendant has multiple meth
arrests and convictions, and when certain firearms are present.

"Those are some of the examples of cases we take," he
said.

Shari Tayloe-Young of 10th District Attorney General Jerry Estes'
office in Cleveland told of a "Drug Court" developed within the
district hoped to help improve prosecution of drug cases.

Young said she supported the idea of restricting access to meth
ingredients.

"What we're seeing is (ingredients procured at) Wal-Mart, Kmart, and
places like that," she said.

She said limitations on access to ephedrine-containing medicines would
be a step in the right direction.

"But you've got to have the education to go with that," Young
said.

Public Defender Charlie Corn told Bredesen he believed a public
awareness television campaign should be launched statewide.

Bredesen said after the roundtable he believed some combination of
incarceration and treatment was one legislative avenue that lawmakers
might use to address the meth problem.

He said he recognized probation was not the best solution for meth
abusers.

The woman who had been incarcerated in federal prison suggested no
soft treatment for meth offenders.

"In no time, it destroyed me," the woman told Bredesen. "Had it not
been for my arrest, I have no doubt in my mind I would be dead."

She said users of meth begin to have no conscience. She said her
56-month stay in federal prison was what she needed to kick the habit
through 500 hours of drug treatment.

David Brown, a counselor for Counsel for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Services in Chattanooga, said problems with TennCare coverage don't
extend to meth addiction treatment.

He said CADAS was "inundated" with meth users.

Bredesen said he would take the information gathered at the roundtable
for use in formulating new ways to attack the meth problem.

Bredesen commented that Oklahoma was among the first states to
effectively strengthen its drug laws.

Newton said a close family member used cocaine and followed the same
sort of path through addiction heard in descriptions of cases from
other members of the panel.

"That's why I'm sitting here today," an emotional Newton said of his
support for anti-drug legislation. "That's real to me, having seen it
as a young person. This has really hit me hearing (the former meth
abuser) talk."