METH FAST BECOMING NO. 1 THREAT

It's not unusual to pick up the newspaper and read about a drug bust or
hear about one on the TV evening news. The drug law enforcement officers
are looking for is methamphetine. Not only are they looking for the drug,
but they are looking for active narcotics manufacturing labs, many of which
are set up and operating illegally in private residences. There's no doubt
the drug scourge in East Tennessee for the current decade is going to be
methamphetamine, the poor man's cocaine. Earlier this month, three Carter
County residents were arrested and charged with the manufacture of
methamphetamine at a home on Dry Creek Road. They had all the necessary
chemicals to conduct a methamphetamine cook. The following day, there was a
report of a Carter County man arrested in Johnson City for possession of
methamphetamine. These are only two incidents lifted from newspaper
accounts in recent weeks of meth busts. State and federal authorities have
labeled meth as the No. 1 drug threat in rural America, but it is spreading
from the countryside to urban areas. Its use continues to grow. The rise in
methamphetamine popularity has led to an increase in illicit drug labs,
which pose health and environmental hazards to investigators and the public.

The very nature of the ignitable, corrosive, reactive and toxic chemicals
at the lab sites have resulted in explosions, fires, toxic fumes and
irreparable damage of human health. The drug has such a deadly hold on its
users that they try to make it using a combination of over-the-counter
drugs and household cleaning products. You can actually make the stuff with
something as small as a hot plate. Methamphetamine's popularity no doubt is
due to the ease with which it is possible to make the drug, but that is a
deceptive notion that can have a lethal effect. The drug can be produced
from readily bought items.

Usually snorted or injected, it can make the user feel euphoric, energized
and powerful. Addicts might be able to go days without sleep but pay a
price with aggressiveness and paranoia. Although the labs are small, the
chemicals used in the drug's manufacture are a risk to everyone in the
area. Face it, most of the people who are doing it are not chemists. Just
as the drug can be produced almost anywhere, methamphetamine users can come
from any sector of society.

It may not be the drug of choice, but it's cheaper and easier to use, say
law enforcement officials. Tennessee's lawmakers refused to pass statutes
restricting the sale of some over-the-counter medicines used to make
methamphetamine, even though the state's retailers said they had agreed to
a statewide limit. The proposed law was weak - misdemeanor penalties for
selling in one transaction more than three packages of one or more of the
medicines or more than three grams - and apparently would not prevent a
potential user from going from store to store to buy what was needed.
Methamphetamine now is part of the drug war. The battleground is our
backyards and neighborhoods, and the effects of the drug on children should
steel our courage for the fight.