HELP TASK FORCE BY REPORTING DRUGS

Members of the Pike County drug task force were ready to get out of house.

Their eyes were watering. Their skin was burning.

"It's the acid," Pike County sheriff Russell Thomas said. "It just burns
you. We've had raids where the building just ignited (because) the fumes
were so bad."

But a meth lab on Shellhorn Road was out of business. If you want to know
how dangerous a drug crystal methamphetamine is, watch how the experts
handle it.

They don't.

A hazardous materials team is called in to take the drug away from the area
and dispose of it.

It is a toxic cocktail.

And yet, more and more people are abusing their bodies with it. It can be
made from cheap, readily available ingredients like Sudafed. And it can be
lethal.

Crystal meth is a colorless, odorless, powerful and addictive man-made
stimulant. It typically resembles small fragments of glass or shiny
blue-white "rocks" of various sizes. Like powdered methamphetamine, the
drug is abused because of the long-lasting euphoric effects it produces.

Crystal meth is used by individuals of all ages. It is increasingly gaining
in popularity as a club drug. Again, it is relatively cheap to produce and
cheap to purchase. Alarmingly, the University of Michigan's Monitoring the
Future Survey revealed that nearly five percent of high school seniors in
the country have used crystal meth at least once. Three percent had used it
in the past year.

The National Drug Intelligence Center, a component of the U.S. Department
of Justice, said the government categorizes crystal meth as a Schedule II
substance. Schedule II drugs, which include cocaine and PCP, have a high
potential for abuse.

Some of the many street terms for the drug include glass, ice, quartz,
stove top, blade and Cristy.

We call it dangerous. We salute the officers in the Pike County Sheriff's
Department, the Troy Police Department and the Drug Task Force for their
efforts in stopping the lab on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, there are more out there. Turn in any tips about the
whereabouts of these drug labs to those experts.