POLICE CHIEF NAMED TO METH TASK FORCE

Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt is one of 10 Tennesseans tasked
by Gov. Phil Bredesen to find solutions to the state's burgeoning
methamphetamine problem.

Bredesen announced Thursday Overholt will serve as a member of the
Governor's Task Force for Methamphetamine Abuse.

The task force represents a broad cross-section of expertise,
including legislators, law enforcement executives, education officials
and human-resource specialists.

The police chief, who serves as chairman of the Upper East Tennessee
Law Enforcement Executive Council and as a board member of Southeast
Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force Board of Directors, said this
morning he appreciates the governor's confidence in appointing him to
the first-of-its-kind task force.

Overholt says he believes combating the spread of meth deserves
special attention, in part, because of the secondary environmental
dangers it poses to innocent people, particularly children and the
elderly.

The components of methamphetamine - most of which are toxic alone -
can produce an explosive mixture producing deadly gas when combined,
according to Overholt.

He says manufacturing one pound of methamphetamine produces up to
seven pounds of toxic byproduct, which frequently is discarded with
normal trash, dumped into a stream or abandoned in the woods or along
the roadside.

"You're basically leaving a toxic waste site when you do that,"
Overholt said this morning.

One initiative Overholt says he supports is increasing the penalties
for individuals caught making methamphetamine.

One way to do this, Overholt says, is changing the classification of
the drug.

Currently, in Tennessee, meth is considered a Schedule II controlled
substance, similar to cocaine, OxyContin, morphine and other drugs
with limited medical uses.

Overholt says he supports reclassifying methamphetamine as a Schedule
I drug, similar to LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms and other substances,
which have no medically recognized uses.

Overholt says he supports increasing criminal penalties for those
caught with large quantities of commercially available methamphetamine
components like anhydrous ammonia, if it's clear the individual's
intent was to manufacture methamphetamine.

The police chief says he would also support a legislative initiative
to ensure industries legally using anhydrous ammonia to adequately
secure the gas.

The methamphetamine task force, chaired by Ken Givens, commissioner of
the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, is scheduled to make
recommendations to Bredesen no later than Sept. 1.

As a member of the regional law enforcement executive council and
regional meth task force, Overholt says he's in a position to solicit
input from law enforcement officials in East Tennessee.