ANDERSON ON FRONT LINE IN DRUG FIGHT

County Is Regional Hub In Effort To Combat Meth Labs

CLINTON - Anderson County has become a regional hub in an expensive federal
effort to combat a growing illegal drug menace - the manufacture and use of
methamphetamine.

The powerful homemade stimulant, which can be cooked up in homes, hotel
rooms, in cars or outside, is "very addictive'' and is considered a factor
in many local burglaries and violent crimes, said Anderson County Chief
Deputy Lewis Ridenour.

And since illegal meth labs contain a witch's brew of hazardous explosive
materials, disposing of them is a highly dangerous and expensive task,
Ridenour said.

A rolling meth lab found in the back of a car last week in Anderson County's
Claxton community cost more than $30,000 to clean up, Ridenour estimated. He
said the federal Drug Enforcement Administration will pay for that expense.

"This is serious stuff,'' Ridenour said. "Meth is the biggest growing drug
problem that we have.''

To combat this problem, the county is now the new home to a specially
outfitted response truck funded by the DEA's Southeastern Methamphetamine
Task Force that responds to reports of meth lab discoveries in Anderson and
13 other counties.

Ridenour said the truck "has been responding to a (meth) lab a day'' on
average in the region. "It's very useful for us to have this truck in
Anderson County because our local response time is quick.''

Along with Anderson County, the meth response truck goes to Knox, Blount,
Loudon, Roane, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Jefferson, Sevier, Union,
Monroe, Morgan and Scott counties.

The local effort in the war on meth labs and users received further
reinforcement last week with word that the county has obtained a $220,000
U.S. Department grant, Sheriff Bill White said.

White said an official announcement of the grant is expected soon. Ridenour
said the grant would be used for "community education and investigations.''

With the grant, local merchants will be alerted to be on the lookout for
suspiciously large purchases of over-the-counter items that are commonly
used in the manufacture of meth, Ridenour said.

Surveillance equipment also will be purchased with the grant money, he said.

The county likely will receive such a grant annually because it houses the
regional meth lab response truck, Ridenour said.

That truck, he said, "contains everything (needed) to process and
investigate meth labs.''

Included are self-contained breathing apparatus sets and special suits worn
by investigators at meth lab sites. Poisonous gases often are produced as
side effects in the manufacture of meth, Ridenour said.

He said two law enforcement officers in Georgia had to take early retirement
recently because they had inhaled poisonous gas at a meth lab and it
destroyed nearly half of their lungs.

Explosions frequently are caused by chemical reactions gone awry in homemade
meth labs, Ridenour said.

"Communities are just now seeing explosions and unexplained house fires
(caused by meth labs),'' he said. "It's really going to get serious for the
communities trying to deal with this.''