METH GROUP RECEIVES GRANT, DONATIONS, INQUIRIES

The good news outweighed the bad at January's methamphetamine task
force meeting as the community action group continued its work of
identifying the impact and seeking solutions to the problems of meth
production in the county.

Department of Social Services (DSS) child protection worker Chad
Slagle, de facto chair of the group, announced that DSS had finally
received the long-anticipated official notification of its
Drug-Endangered Child grant award to Watauga County. The grant
allocates more than $35,000 to DSS to pay for meth-affected children's
medical expenses and the replacement of their clothing and personal
effects. Money is also available, Slagle said, for attendance at a
training conference, as well as a computer, digital camera and cell
phones. The grant also allocates a similar sum to the Watauga County
Sheriff's Office for the payment of overtime and for a camera and
laptop to be used as documentation tools.

As conditions of the grant, Slagle said, task force members needed to
agree to change the group name to the Watauga County DEC
(Drug-Endangered Child) Program, commit to making presentations at
conferences and participate in data collection efforts. "We are one of
only two counties in the eastern United States that will have DEC
programs," Slagle said.

DEC Program member Ann Brown of Watauga Medical Center announced that
the hospital had also received a grant - a total of $41,000 that will
be used to construct a negative pressure isolation room adjacent to
the decontamination area and to purchase and install a continuous
heating water heater for the outside decontamination area. Once the
room is constructed, Brown said, meth-contaminated persons will be
taken directly from the ambulance bay into isolation.

In other good news, Slagle reported that the High Country
Honda-sponsored Project Elf Christmas program was so successful in
soliciting clothes, toys and other gifts that the bounty exceeded the
needs of the meth-affected children who inspired the project idea.
There was so much stuff, Slagle said, that in addition to the
meth-affected kids, foster children, treatment cases and even children
involved in open investigation received "boxes of toys and clothes."
In all, Slagle said, Project Elf touched 76 children.

He also acknowledged the generous donation from Holy Communion
Lutheran Church in Banner Elk of $700 in Walmart gift cards. The
church held a special fundraiser to assist DSS efforts with replacing
the personal effects of children whose clothes, bedding, toys and
other belongings are contaminated by an in-home meth lab.

Slagle told the group that he has been receiving increasing numbers of
requests from agencies in other counties asking him to provide
training sessions on how to set up a meth response team, but that his
schedule is too tight to allow the travel and out-of-office days that
such training would involve. During discussion, group members
suggested that DSS coordinate with the health department, the response
team and the DSS Directors' Association to develop an in-county
training session that out-of-towners will be invited to attend.

And it's not just social service agencies that are interested in the
group's work. Subsequent to last Friday's meeting, Slagle sent a
notice to all task force members announcing that an Associated Press
reporter is interested in talking to task force members for a story on
meth labs and children.

The group approved a revised draft medical protocol for children found
in homes with meth labs. Slagle will present the suggested protocol to
a meeting of Watauga Medical Center emergency room doctors. The task
force developed the draft medical protocol to fill the vacuum created
by the state's failure to issue guidelines or directives.

Other discussion focused on a recent arrest in which a 17-year-old was
found with an adult in a vehicle loaded with the precursor chemicals
used to produce meth. The matter under consideration - involving a
host of legal and privacy issues - was whether the minor should be
medically tested since no active meth lab was discovered.

Task force members also watched a video about meth problems in
California provided by Sheriff Mark Shook.

The next Watauga County DEC Program meeting is scheduled for 1:00 to
3:00 p.m. February 6, in the upstairs conference room at the human
services building on Poplar Grove Connector.