METH AWARENESS MEETING SET FOR TOMORROW NIGHT

What does that dangerous drug meth smell like? Would you know it if someone
next door was "cooking" it in your neighborhood? The Putnam Sheriff's
Department and the Cookeville Housing Authority want as many people as
possible to know the answers to those questions and others about the
dangers of illegal drugs.

They are sponsoring a public awareness meeting on the subject tomorrow night.

Set for Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cookeville Community Center on Carlen
Drive, the meeting is titled "The Meth Lab Next Door: the Effects on You
and Your Children."

Is the hope of Putnam Sheriff David Andrews and Detective Greg Whittaker
that it will help increase public awareness about the growing meth problem
here.

"We want to educate the public for safety purposes and also so that more
citizens can know what to look for and let us know about to investigate,"
said Detective Whittaker.

"We want to tell everybody what meth smells like, what chemicals they might
see around a place where it is being manufactured, and what to do when they
do suspect they are near it.

"But it's not easy to describe what the stuff smells like, as it seems to
smell like different things to different people. It's just a very dominant
chemical odor, such as the odor of paint stripper."

The fumes from meth make many people sick, and they can be deadly. There is
also the danger of fire and explosions anywhere the drug is being cooked.

And while many meth cookers carry the "lab" components around in vehicles
and set up in apartments or motel rooms or other places, a good many today
are also "cooking out in the open," Detective Whittaker said.

"We are starting to see signs they are cooking the stuff outdoors, maybe
out in the woods," he said.

Because the problem is growing here, many people may be in danger from
meth's fumes or other risks without knowing it, he said.

"We just want to raise the public awareness about meth so they can help us
more by letting us know where it is being manufactured," Whittaker said.

The public awareness meeting will also include information about other
illegal drugs and how citizens can help law enforcers fight the problem, he
said.

Guests who will offer information at the session include representatives
from the Tennessee National Guard, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Dr.
Sullivan Smith, an emergency medicine physician who works extensively with
law officers here.