Pubdate: Tue, 14 May 2002
Source: Kingsport Times-News (TN)
Copyright: 2002 Kingsport Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesnews.net/index.cgi
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1437
Note:  Will not publish letters in print editions from online users who do 
not reside in print circulation area, unless they are former residents or 
have some current connection to Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

BULLS GAP INCIDENT SHOWS JUST HOW DEADLY METHAMPHETAMINE IS

Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson will be in East 
Tennessee Thursday as part of his national "Meth in America: Not in Our 
Town" tour - an effort aimed at increasing awareness about the devastating 
effects of methamphetamine.

But the timing of Hutchinson's well-intentioned visit is ripe with an 
unintentional and tragic irony. The DEA director's visit, coming as it does 
in the wake of a Bulls Gap meth lab explosion last week that killed two men 
and left another in intensive care, seems profoundly superfluous.

After such an incident, a news conference discussing the danger of meth 
addiction and production is scarcely needed.

Here, in our own backyard, the devastatingly deadly effects of meth are all 
too obvious.

According to Hawkins County Sheriff Wayne Clevinger, a 9-1-1 call from a 
man complaining of shortness of breath on Lawson Road in Bulls Gap Monday 
led to the discovery of a methamphetamine lab that had exploded a few days 
earlier.

The force of the explosion was so powerful, the sheriff said, that a 
section of a wall at the mobile home had been blown out.

Hawkins deputies have been able to determine that one man was apparently 
killed instantly in the explosion and that a second man, found dead in a 
bathroom in the mobile home, had lingered for hours or days after the 
blast, finally succumbing to exposure to the caustic chemicals used in 
producing the methamphetamine.

"Obviously, they didn't call for help at first due to the illegal nature of 
what they were doing," Clevinger says, "but by Monday morning, the third 
man was concerned enough for his life to call 9-1-1."

Only last month in this space we warned that Tennessee was shaping up as 
the latest battleground for the production and use of methamphetamine. Now, 
it would seem, we are, literally, on the front line of that battle.

Meth cooks and traffickers often operate in small towns and rural areas. 
They find them perfect havens to make and distribute their dangerous drug. 
Hundreds of labs have been discovered in Tennessee in just the last year. 
And the problem is getting worse. The DEA, alone, seized more than 460 labs 
in the state last year, a 150 percent increase since 2000. With an average 
cleanup cost of $3,000, meth labs are also putting a huge financial strain 
on the state's resources at a time when money is in extraordinarily short 
supply.

Meth continues to ruin countless lives, filling jails and prisons - and 
morgues - flooding courts and frustrating overworked law enforcement agencies.

Because most people may be unaware that they're living near a meth lab, 
here are some things to be aware of:

. Strong odors similar to that of fingernail polish remover or urine.

. Residences with windows blacked out.

. Renters who pay their landlords in cash. (Most drug dealers trade 
exclusively in cash.)

. Lots of traffic - people coming and going at unusual times. There may be 
little traffic during the day, but at night, the activity increases 
dramatically.

. Purchases of large amounts of products, especially cold medicines.

. Excessive trash, including large amounts of items such as antifreeze 
containers, drain cleaner, lantern fuel cans, red chemically stained coffee 
filters, batteries, drain cleaner and duct tape.

If you observe any of these tell-tale signs, immediately contact your 
nearest law enforcement agency. Ending the scourge of methamphetamine 
begins with each of us.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom