Pubdate: Mon, 01 Dec 2003
Source: Herald-Citizen (TN)
Copyright: 2003 Herald-Citizen, a division of Cleveland Newspapers, Inc
Contact:  http://www.herald-citizen.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1501
Author: Lindsay McReynolds
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH FUMES FROM USERS MAKING ATTORNEYS SICK

The illegal drug methamphetamine has spawned a new problem -- it's
making the attorneys who defend those arrested for using meth sick as
well. And 13th Judicial District Public Defender David Brady of
Cookeville is offering what he says is a short-term solution to the
problem -- instructing his attorneys to leave the courtroom when they
feel sick or intoxicated by meth fumes. For the past month, two
attorneys working out of Brady's office have reported feeling sick or
"high" apparently from the meth fumes brought in from the clients they
defend in the Cumberland County Courthouse and the Cumberland County
Justice Center, according to Brady.

"They've been sick several times," he said. "It's enough where they
can tell me they recognize the symptoms when it starts happening."

Last week, Brady wrote a letter to judges in the district explaining
the problem and his short-term solution -- instructing attorneys to
leave the courtroom when they begin to experience the now familiar
odor of meth or symptoms of illness or intoxication apparently caused
by the meth fumes.

"It's a problem and I don't know exactly how to deal with it," he
said. "We're looking into it and trying to figure it out."

Brady said the two attorneys who defend clients in Cumberland County,
one of seven counties in the 13th Judicial District, have reported
experiencing burning eyes, nose, mouth and skin as well as nausea
apparently caused by meth fumes brought in from defendants in
Cumberland County courtrooms.

According to Brady, the problem of his attorneys getting sick is only
happening in Cumberland County, possibly because of poor ventilation
in the courtrooms there. He also said that it may have been a problem
at least one time in White County.

"The space in Cumberland County is a little bit confined and not all
that well ventilated," he said. "That may be part of the problem."

Another part of the problem could be the large number of meth cases
there.

Brady said that Judge Steven Douglas had asked the Cumberland County
executive to get hazardous material officials to test the courtrooms
to see if they pose a danger.

"But it's more likely to be the people than the room itself," Brady
said. "I've asked a local pharmacologist to check with the University
of Tennessee and see what they think about it."

In the meantime, his attorneys will simply have to leave the courtroom
when they feel sick, which may end work in that court for the day. But
Brady said he feels that action is necessary in order to protect the
attorneys in his office.

In the letter to the judges, Brady wrote that attorneys cannot be
expected to provide legal assistance while under the influence of a
drug and that the attorneys' duty to provide assistance does not
require that they endanger their health.

He said his attorneys are concerned about what will happen in
Cumberland County courts today since this is the first court day since
the judges have seen Brady's letter.

Brady said he isn't sure what the long-term solution will be to the
problem but he hopes to work with the judges to determine what to do.

"My lawyers deal with, on an average day, 30 to 40 different people,"
he said. "Often they are sitting side by side or standing face to
face. You're within inches of them.

"You think about the potential to exposure to communicable disease and
how you might react to that, but not this problem exactly," he said.

"One suggestion I had was to get gas masks issued to public defender
lawyers," he said. "But I don't think that's going to work."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin