METH COSTS STAGGERING

MANCHESTER - Privacy restrictions and just plain decency prevent Coffee
County Sheriff Steve Graves from attaching names to some of the horror
stories about methamphetamine, an updated concoction about six times as
potent as the "speed" which became synonymous with some of the motorcylce
gangs of the 1960s. Several in Coffee County have been badly burned and at
least one died in explosions or fires caused by cook-offs set up in
portable meth labs found in houses and outbuildings as well as motels and
apartment complexes, the sheriff said. As many as half a dozen Coffee
County residents are believed to have died of meth-related health
complications. One, who looked twice his chronological age, died of
multiple organ failure, Graves said. For lack of a better description, his
body shut down. "Enough of that stuff will eat you alive," 14th Judicial
District drug task force director Billy Cook said. "Believe it when we tell
you that it's nothing to mess around with." Agents of the drug task force.
the Coffee County Sheriff's Department and Manchester and Tullahoma police
departments have dedstroyed more than 50 meth labs in the first seven
months of 2003 and found almost 80 non-working labs discarded in trash
piles, beside roads, in wooded areas or in lakes or streams, to do further
harm as hazardous material. So what's the attraction? A sale price of $800
to $1,200 per ounce for which meth users will often steal to get the money.
Materials costing $200 and available at most any general or grocery store
can produce up to $12,000 in methamphetamine, a tidy return on a product
fraught with danger for both producer and consumer - and their children.
Innocent casualties include more than 600 children placed in foster care by
the Tennessee Department of Children's Services since Jan. 1, 2002, and
that's not counting scores more placed in custody of relatives. When
children are removed, DCS tries to place them with relatives where possible.

An apparent reduction in foster care placements can be misleading because
it doesn't reflect the number of investigations, a DCS spokesman said. "It
may be getting worse," souheast region administrator Sandra Holder said.
"The thing that worries me is what it is doing to the unborn children."
Growing numbers of meth-addicted babies are being reported. Meth is made
from commonly available materials - ephedrine from cold tablets blended
with haazardous chemicals like drain cleaner (sulfuric acid) and matchbook
striking pads (red phosphorous). Odorous vapors from cooking hazardous
chemicals cause respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, rashes and sores.

Exposure can cause loss of consciousness and even death. Extended meth use
can create paranoia and hallucinations. Clothing, toys and other belongings
are considered contaminated by such exposure. Contaminated belongings must
be removed by workers wearing gas masks and chemical suits and meth lab
equipment and chemicals disposed of as hazardous materials. Newborns should
be monitored and counseled as they grow up to help them avoid addiction,
DCS recommends. More than half of the foster care cases, 326, are from a
cluster of 10 heavily meth infested counties in southeast Tennessee
including Grundy, Franklin, Marion and Sequatchie counties. Another 169 are
from Cannon, Warren, White and 11 other Upper Cumberland counties. Eleven
meth-displaced children are reported for 12 South Central Tennessee
counties including Bedford, Coffee, Lincoln and Moore counties. A meth baby
in Grundy County born with a heart problem is still being treated and fed
intravenously, state child investigator Wanda VanHooser said. "The mother
is out of the hospital doing her own thing (and) has not been charged with
anything," she said. If the child dies, the mother can be charged.
Investigators say sales of ingredients in quantities used to make meth need
to be controlled but lawmakers refused this year to approve such a measure.
But state Sen. Larry Trail, chairman of the Select Committee on Children
and Youth, predicts that action will be taken next year.