TIRED OF WAITING ON STATE TO ACT, COUNTY OFFICIALS WANT TO TACKLE METH
PROBLEM NOW

Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess told city and county mayors,
sheriff, police chiefs, prosecutors and investigators from nine counties
they could help start something "that will have a lasting effect," in the
battle against methamphetamine.

"The problem is so big you can't get your arms around it," said state Sen.
Charlotte Burks. "And it has six legs all going in different directions."

Nowhere in the southeastern United States have communities been hit as hard
by the wake of destruction on the moral fabric of society as has the Upper
Cumberland and East Tennessee regions.

"We can't wait on the state," Burgess said. "We have got to do something now."

That is why officials from Campbell, Coffee, Fentress, Morgan, Pickett,
Scott, Warren and White counties gathered at the Cumberland County Justice
Center Friday at the urging of Congressman Lincoln Davis to discuss the
meth manufacturing industry and how best to confront the issue.

Purpose of the meeting was an open discussion on the meth problem,
discussion and planning for a meth task force for the counties represented,
the exchange of information and alternative projects.

Davis, joined by Sen. Burks, served as moderator for the two-hour session
and asked those who filled a courtroom at the Justice Center to share the
ideas and views about the explosion of meth manufacturing in the area.

"We have to find a way to stop the spread of methamphetamine," Burgess
continued. "Working together we can jointly reduce, or maybe eliminate, meth."

Davis listened intently as each speaker took his or her turn at relaying
problems they were having in the fight against meth, taking notes on
requests ranging from funding training and extra manpower to wage war
against the drug, to finding ways to test and protect children who come out
of homes where meth labs are found.

"It touches every family," Davis noted. "We have to start solving the
problem." Most of the counties represented do not have a task force trained
in handling of meth labs and dealing with those who are in bondage to the
cheap, extremely addictive drug.

Burks told the group about her efforts to regulate pseudoephedrine, the
only substance used in clandestine labs that cannot be substituted. The
power lobby of the retail merchants association is fighting the regulatory
effort.

"Statewide, and nationwide, they don't want to help us," Burks said. "Our
local merchants have cooperated so much, but to a lot, it is just not an
issue in Nashville."

That is because, Burks said, methamphetamine is a rural county scourge and
those from metropolitan areas simply haven't seen much in the way of meth
manufacturing. "The problem is too far removed from Nashville," she said.

Davis noted that 75 percent of all meth busts in the southeast have been
made in Tennessee, and over 50 percent of that figure in the Upper
Cumberland region.

Burgess repeated the theme he has carried for the past couple of years that
the most effective way to fight the proliferation of methamphetamine use is
to take children out of the environment and put them in a safe place. "That
is why we have started a drug-endangered children's program," said Burgess.
The local sheriff said he would like to see funding for equipment that can
be used to test children who are taken from a home where we know it is
cooking."

One investigator suggested one way help could come from the federal
government would be new laws that would require a prescription to purchase
cold products that have pseudoephedrine as an ingredient.

Nearly all the sheriffs and police chiefs present talked about overcrowding
in local jails caused by meth arrests.

Laws that require long-term incarceration were also suggested because
rehabilitation from meth addiction is virtually non-existent.

An estimated 98 percent of those who use methamphetamine become addicted.
Most of those users turn their backs on their families and go through all
the personal assets in their search for meth.

District Attorney General Bill Gibson suggested specialized prisons to
house those convicted of manufacturing meth.

Gibson also announced the use of a grant to partner with Tennessee Tech in
the creation of an interactive CD for all ages and occupations with games
and education features highlighted.

Suggestions that Davis and Burks will study include more foster care
temporary placement; laws protection children; state-wide regulatory laws
on the sale of psuedoephedrine; resources for additional lab technicians, a
DEA field office in the Upper Cumberlands; more cleanup resources; and a
specialized jail with tougher laws for those convicted of making meth.

"We're not going to arrest our way out of this," said Burgess.

Following the informal listening session, members of the Tennessee National
Guard's interdiction team then demonstrated equipment they have that is
available to assist local law enforcement agencies.