METHAMPHETAMINE TASK FORCE EXPANDS TO 41 COUNTIES

CHATTANOOGA - The popularity of methamphetamine, a highly addictive
stimulant made by cooking chemicals that are readily available, has prompted
a specialized drug task force to expand its reach through all of East
Tennessee.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee, said Thursday in Maynardville that the
regional methamphetamine task force, while getting another $1 million annual
appropriation, is expanding to include 41 counties.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said the task force was expanding
northward from the 21-county region south and west of McMinn County, to the
Kentucky border.

The task force, which started in 12 southeastern Tennessee counties in
fiscal 2000 from its first $1 million appropriation, enhances enforcement
work by state, county and city officers.

The Southeast Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force in 2002 seized 234 meth
labs. Through Wednesday, 326 labs have been seized this year, Dedrick said.
He said 974 labs have been "taken down" since the task force began.

The drug's greatest appeal is in rural areas, where cookers can hide the
stench of a recipe that includes cold pills containing ephedrine, brake
cleaner containing toluene, drain cleaner containing sulfuric acid, salt and
matchbook striking pads that contain red phosphorous.

Wamp said in a telephone interview that the task force is "one of the best
examples in the country of coordination and cooperation on any issue."

He said meth first became a law enforcement problem in Tennessee in Grundy
and Franklin counties in the late 1990s but now "meth labs are showing up in
urban areas in East Tennessee."

Police in East Ridge, a Chattanooga suburb, seized chemicals used to make
meth and arrested four in a Tuesday raid on a motel room.

He said the $1 million pays for overtime, vehicles, enforcement equipment
such as hazardous materials suits and cleanups of the toxic chemical labs.

"It costs over $5,000 to local government every time you arrest and break
down a lab," Wamp said.

He said the drug's popularity appears to be in the "foothills of East
Tennessee and the foothill of Appalachia."

"It may not be that it spreads west," Wamp said.