WATCHING FOR METH

You couldn't blame Darien South for being bitter and vindictive -- but
he doesn't waste his breath on anger or blame.

He can't afford to.

Sixteen months ago, his dream of being a firefighter collapsed into a
medical nightmare when he inhaled a lung-searing cloud of hydrochloric
and phosphene gas while responding to a fire in the Deep Gap community
of Watauga county. Unbeknown to the volunteer fireman, the burning
house was being used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine. South
spent four days in intensive care and had months of follow-up
treatment, including sinus surgery.

With permanently impaired lung function, he faces lifelong
complications. He can't run or play catch with his children. At 31,
he'll never fight another fire.

Meanwhile, the man who operated the meth lab will spend a maximum of
two years in jail -- after which he can breathe easy.

South's not being vindictive, just realistic, when he says, "these
people have absolutely no regard for human life."

With his boyish looks and low-key delivery, South put a human face on
a hellish problem as the Rowan County Meth Watch program had its
public launch Tuesday with a presentation at the F&M Trolley Barn. The
program, sponsored by the Rowan Business Alliance, hopes to focus more
public attention on the scourge of meth, a highly potent drug made
from household items. Meth Watch will enroll retail businesses and
other concerns whose workers might recognize and report purchases or
other activities that point to possible meth involvement. Speakers at
Tuesday's launch also emphasized the importance of citizen awareness,
as well as the need for legislative changes that will result in
harsher meth penalties.

It's the latter mission that South and his mother have embraced. After
speaking briefly in Salisbury Tuesday, they headed to Raleigh where
legislators are studying several meth-law changes. One would make it a
second-degree murder when a death results from a meth operation.
Another would target a particularly troubling aspect of the meth
epidemic -- the frequent danger to children -- by making it an
aggravating factor when a meth maker endangers kids.

Meth labs are rising at an alarming rate around North Carolina, with
more than 130 operations broken up so far this year. In part, that's
because the drug can be made from easily obtained materials such as
cough medicine, acetone, antifreeze, heating fuel and coffee filters.
Rowan District Attorney Bill Kenerly likens the meth phenomenon to the
crack epidemic that erupted a couple of decades ago, devastating
entire communities. With the resources of law enforcement and judicial
agencies already swamped, he says, "the last thing we need is another
drug epidemic."

Meth Watch organizers hope to recruit a broad cross-section of people
to help counter that trend and establish a model that other areas of
the state might copy.

There's a lot at stake in this fight -- the lives of children,
firefighters, law officers and other emergency responders, as well as
the safety of the entire community. When a meth lab can be as near as
the trunk of the car parked in a neighbor's driveway, nobody can
afford to think they're not affected.