GOVERNOR'S ROUNDTABLE LOOKS AT METH PROBLEM

Gov. Phil Bredesen stopped in Cleveland Thursday to hear local
opinions from community and civic leaders, legal and medical
professionals and experts in law enforcement concerning the state's
problem with methamphetamine.

Social workers, state legislators, members of the Governor's Task
Force on Methamphetamine Abuse and a former school teacher also
attended the Thursday event in the Foundation Room at Cleveland State
Community College.

The governor said he learned the criminal justice system is slow
enough "that people who are arrested for meth are so heavily addicted,
every time they are arrested, they're just out doing it again and
again, and that's something worth taking a look at."

Once someone is in jail for a meth-related crime, there is no place to
keep them.

"You don't want a swinging door. We have counties all across the state
that have these problems. The state has these problems. Right now,
when I'd like to be putting money into education, we're putting almost
$200 million into jail construction," he said.

Bredesen said a former teacher and meth abuser told him meth addicts
need to serve time where they can get off the drug rather than be
given probation or a reprimand.

"I think what I was hearing here today was that a period of
confinement with treatment is far and away the most effective way to
deal with it," Bredesen said.

During the meeting, it was a former teacher who captured the
governor's attention with her story of addiction and her subsequent
imprisonment.

Because of her children, she asked her name not be used. She's polite,
quick to laugh and enjoys her life. She seems to be a normal, healthy
person who presents no visible signs she once abused meth.

Dave Shelton of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said, "You wouldn't
believe it Governor, but she used to be quite rude."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Laymon said, "Yes, and she used to lie to
us."

She now works for a title company in the same building as Shelton.

"I used to run from him, and now we work in the same building," she
said. "Sometimes I want to stomp on the floor and tell him to be quiet
down there."

Bredesen asked the former teacher to tell her story. She was not the
stereotypical meth abuser because of her childhood environment and
education. She was more than 30 years old when she got addicted. She
was, as she told the governor, "old enough to know better.

"I'm the infamous school teacher in Grundy County who was arrested in
late 1998. I was not raised to participate in drugs or anything like
that," she told the panel. "I got married, and he was always around
things that he shouldn't be. He got involved with methamphetamine
probably in 1995. At that time, I was teaching school.

"In no time I was hooked and I went from teaching school to federal
prison. That's pretty much the story," she said.

She left her two children, now 20 and 12, with her mother to serve her
57-month sentence in federal prison. She served 42 months of the sentence.

"If I hadn't been busted, I'd be dead," she said. "You cannot let
people get away with this with a slap on the hand. On my first offense
I got 57 months in prison."

Although she said that's probably not what everyone needs, putting
people on probation is not working. People should be punished for
their actions.

"This drug has no conscience," she said. "It can take a very good
person and turn them into the most evil human being."

She said her time in prison gave her time to think and helped her get
off the drug. She was released to a halfway house for six months upon
completion of her sentence.

"I had bottomed out so bad, I remember thinking on the way to jail
that I may have lived through this. Before I went to jail I didn't
care if I lived or died. I had bottomed out so bad that I wanted to
change," she said. "Some people, no matter what you do to them, they
may not change, but I had a lot of time to think about it while I was
in federal prison. I went through a 500-hour drug treatment program.
They offered me the tools that could help me, but it was up to me."

The ex-teacher said when she took the drug the first time she felt
invincible. She had incredible energy and could do everything that
needed to be done. But, in a week's time, she was doing things that
made no sense to anyone. She was up three or four days, then needed
more to continue to function.

"That's how it hooks you," she said. "It has you from the start."

The state legislature is expected to try to deal with the problem of
manufacture and use of methamphetamine. Bredesen appointed a task
force to define the problem and determine a solution.

The task force published seven recommendations Sept. 1 that are under
consideration:

Increase funding for methamphetamine treatment with an eye toward
long-term initiatives;

Educate communities about the dangers of methamphetamine abuse;

Create new penalties and strengthen existing penalties for
methamphetamine-related crimes;

Commit resources to help children harmed by methamphetamine
manufacturing and abuse;

Limit the availability of precursor (ingredients) material used to
illegally manufacture methamphetamine;

Address contamination caused by clandestine methamphetamine
laboratories; and

n Increase the coordination between federal, state and local stakeholders.