Pubdate: Fri, 29 Aug 2003
Source: Elizabethton Star (TN)
Copyright: 2003 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.starhq.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1478

METH LABS ARE A THREAT TO SOCIETY

The discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory this week on a mountain near 
Railroad Grade Road in Roan Mountain underscores how prevalent the drug has 
become in this area. Earlier this month, a lab was found in a home in the 
Wilbur Dam area. Some people, even those that use the drug and operate the 
labs, do not realize the danger and tragedy of methamphetamine. It fries 
the brain and ignites rage. It is a volatile fuel for spousal battery and 
child abuse.

The manufacture of the drug taints land and groundwater, props up an 
organized-crime distribution network and endangers anyone who happens to be 
near the combustible chemical should something go wrong and a whole house 
blows up. A Hazmat team had to be called in to clean up the meth lab in 
Roan Mountain. The people who make and use the chemicals are criminal.

There is no doubt about that. Such drug dealers and manufacturers are not 
friends to society. Meth manufacturers and dealers leave families and lives 
- -- chiefly their own -- in ruins.

Drug crimes undermine society. Methamphetamine use and manufacture is 
rapidly spreading in the Northeast Tennessee and Western, N.C. areas. In 
Watauga County, N.C., a prosecutor is pressing forward with plans to charge 
a drug-crime defendant under state anti-terrorism laws. Other prosecutors 
are considering following his lead. While drug dealers are not terrorists, 
it is frustrating when a convicted meth lab operator only gets six months 
in prison -- tops -- if convicted.

That is what happened in neighboring Boone, N.C., and what triggered the 
prosecutor to ask that state laws be changed, allowing the drug defendant 
to be prosecuted as a terrorist. His sense of helplessness is 
understandable. Considering that prisons nationwide are filled with cocaine 
users, prosecutors should be confident of being able to prosecute 
methamphetamine suspects without equating a narcotic with nuclear or 
chemical weapons. Methamphetamine is a bad deal all around.

And, those who would make the drug and endanger those around them are a 
menace to society, and should be treated as such. Tough sentences should be 
imposed on those who manufacture and sell methamphetamine.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart