TENNESSEE BATTLES METH, POT IN WAR ON DRUGS

As Tennessee prepares to start the new year, some old acquaintances will
not be forgotten.

Despite tougher laws and increased enforcement efforts, the drug problem in
Tennessee continues to be strong with both domestically produced drugs as
wells as trafficking operations throughout the state.

"The drug problems we find here in Tennessee, throughout the state, cocaine
remains a problem, methamphetamine is a huge problem and here in East
Tennessee, marijuana is a problem because it is a natural grow area for
marijuana," said Harry Sommers, special agent in charge for Drug
Enforcement Administration operations in Tennessee.

The two biggest problems currently facing DEA and other law enforcement
agents working to fight the war on drugs in Tennessee are methamphetamine,
commonly called meth, and marijuana, according to Sommers. "We had more
meth labs in Tennessee last year than we did in the rest of the entire
southeast region," he said. "We had the second largest domestically grown
marijuana eradication in the nation as well."

According to Sommers, approximately 200 meth producing laboratories were
seized in the state in 2000 and that number had grown to 1,150 meth labs
which were seized in the state by the beginning of December. "Obviously
that is a huge growth," he said.

In addition to meth which is manufactured in what are called "home cooks"
which are usually small and unsophisticated laboratories according to
information from the DEA, agents also have to combat against
methamphetamine which is being imported to the area. "It's a hard drug to
fight because you have to fight it on a local, regional and international
level," Sommers said. "Up until a year ago, almost all of the meth found in
Tennessee was domestically made. I think as time goes by we are seeing more
of it being brought in from places like Texas and California."

Much of the methamphetamine being imported into the area is part of what
Sommers called "organized drug cells" from Mexico, which he adds shows that
the demand for the drug is high in the state. "The Mexicans aren't going to
bring it in until the user base is big enough to support it," he said.

Until recent years, cocaine -- in both the powder and crystal, or "crack
cocaine" form -- was the drug of choice, so to speak, for Tennessee,
according to information from the DEA. In the last few years, that drug has
lost some of its popularity while use of methamphetamine, which is called
"the poor man's crack," has been on the rise, according to DEA information.

Production of meth in clandestine laboratories is becoming such a problem
in the state that, according to the DEA, Tennessee accounts for 75 percent
of the lab seizures in the southeast region of the United States. Joey
Reece, who is the resident agent in charge for the Knoxville office of the
DEA, states that those figures may be misleading about the actual drug
problem in Tennessee.

"Part of the reason, I think, that our stats are so much higher than
neighboring states is that we are really aggressive in going after them
(labs)," he said.

Both Reece and Sommers stated that methamphetamine producing laboratories
are worrisome for law enforcement agents due to the endless number of
problems associated with the labs and their operators. The chemicals which
are used to produce the drug not only produce toxic fumes and toxic waste,
but are very combustible and prone to explosions.

In the state of Tennessee, more than 550 children have been removed from
their homes and taken into state custody because their parents or guardians
were producing and/or using methamphetamine.

According to the DEA, in the year 2000, an estimated 4 percent of the U.S.
population reported to having tried methamphetamine at least once during
their life. While the drug affects levels of serotonin and dopamine in the
brain and creates a euphoric high, according to health officials, it is
that same property which makes the drug so addictive.

In addition to the high which a methamphetamine user gets from the drug,
several other, more dangerous, side effects occur from use. According to
the DEA, those effects include addiction, psychotic behavior and brain damage.

Chronic use of the drug can lead to violent behavior, anxiety,
hallucinations, mood disturbances, delusions and paranoia. Brain damage
associated with the drug are compared to Alzheimer's disease, stroke and
epilepsy, according to the DEA.