METH LABS ARE A THREAT TO SOCIETY

The discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory this week on a mountain near
Railroad Grade Road in Roan Mountain underscores how prevalent the drug has
become in this area. Earlier this month, a lab was found in a home in the
Wilbur Dam area. Some people, even those that use the drug and operate the
labs, do not realize the danger and tragedy of methamphetamine. It fries
the brain and ignites rage. It is a volatile fuel for spousal battery and
child abuse.

The manufacture of the drug taints land and groundwater, props up an
organized-crime distribution network and endangers anyone who happens to be
near the combustible chemical should something go wrong and a whole house
blows up. A Hazmat team had to be called in to clean up the meth lab in
Roan Mountain. The people who make and use the chemicals are criminal.

There is no doubt about that. Such drug dealers and manufacturers are not
friends to society. Meth manufacturers and dealers leave families and lives
- -- chiefly their own -- in ruins.

Drug crimes undermine society. Methamphetamine use and manufacture is
rapidly spreading in the Northeast Tennessee and Western, N.C. areas. In
Watauga County, N.C., a prosecutor is pressing forward with plans to charge
a drug-crime defendant under state anti-terrorism laws. Other prosecutors
are considering following his lead. While drug dealers are not terrorists,
it is frustrating when a convicted meth lab operator only gets six months
in prison -- tops -- if convicted.

That is what happened in neighboring Boone, N.C., and what triggered the
prosecutor to ask that state laws be changed, allowing the drug defendant
to be prosecuted as a terrorist. His sense of helplessness is
understandable. Considering that prisons nationwide are filled with cocaine
users, prosecutors should be confident of being able to prosecute
methamphetamine suspects without equating a narcotic with nuclear or
chemical weapons. Methamphetamine is a bad deal all around.

And, those who would make the drug and endanger those around them are a
menace to society, and should be treated as such. Tough sentences should be
imposed on those who manufacture and sell methamphetamine.