Pubdate: Thu, 07 Oct 2004
Source: Tullahoma News (TN)
Copyright: The Tullahoma News 2004
Contact:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=49033&BRD=1614&PAG=461&dept_id=161070&
Website: http://www.tullahomanews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2031
Author: Brian Justice
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

'TERRORIST NEXT DOOR' VIDEO SHOWS DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF METH ABUSE

To make it abundantly clear how bad methamphetamine affects its
abusers and innocent bystanders, a special video by Video Illumination
Productions is in the works. The Tullahoma Drug Free Task Force saw
clips on Tuesday of the video, being produced by VIP, based in
Winchester. Dale Moore is the company's executive producer while Paul
Koch is the producer.

Moore, Koch and Pamela Peck, owner of Mid-State Realty Century 21 and
a Franklin County Chamber of Commerce director, explained the video's
intent. They said meth abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the
immediate area. Not only are abusers affected, but unsuspecting people
who may later rent property that had been used to house a meth lab.

The video in its final form will showcase area law enforcement
personnel - Moore County Investigator Larry Campbell, Franklin County
Investigator Mike Bell, Franklin County Chief Deputy Tim Fuller and
others. Moore said meth has become such a widespread problem that it
affects nearly every community in some negative way.

The video is called Terrorist Next Door. Inmates in local jails are
also included.

They involve a man who had a son taken away because of his meth
addiction, a young mother who lost two children the same way and
another woman who has to deal with serving a three-year jail sentence
and explain to her three children what went wrong.

Moore said an effort was made to contact local businesses about
contributing. He said Wal-Mart was more than willing to donate to the
cause. Ms. Peck said Century 21's corporate office also was very
supportive of the video effort.

She said the company as a real estate firm has to deal with property
damaged by meth labs. She added that the more people know about it,
the more they can do to take action to combat the drug and its drastic
effects. Moore said the video will be made available to municipalities
across the state, and plans are to have it air on the Discovery
Channel sometime next year. Task Force members agreed it would be good
to show the video in schools to let children see how bad the side
effects from meth abuse can be. Koch displayed pictures of children
burned and injured while they were near meth labs. "The effects on
children are just tremendous," he said. Koch said if children
understand how devastating meth abuse can be, they might not want to
ever experiment with it.

Task Force chairman Troy Bisby said Tullahoma has taken an initiative
to combat meth abuse by enacting two separate ordinances. One
regulates the display, sale and delivery of cold medicines ephedrine,
pseudoephrine and phenylopropanolamine and the other condemns property
used for meth production until proper cleanup measures are taken.
"It's a good first step," Bisby said, adding later: "We're going to do
what we can to fight meth."

The drug lab ordinance requires that property owners be responsible
for site clean-up costs.

Bisby had said property owners as landlords would take a more active
interest in whether they rent to meth producers, and the landlords
would also be more aware about debris from illegal labs being on their
property. The other ordinance regulates amounts of the cold medicine
products sold and requires purchasers to show identification and sign
documents when they buy them.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin