Pubdate: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 Source: Daily Times, The (TN) Copyright: 2004 Horvitz Newspapers Contact: http://www.thedailytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1455 Author: Iva Butler Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Series: http://www.mapinc.org/source/Daily+Times,+The+(TN) DEADLY METH LABS GROW IN COUNTY, STATE While Blount County is not infested with methamphetamine labs like nearby Anderson and Roane counties, the problem is definitely here. ``It's in our area bad ... in Townsend,'' said Townsend Police Chief Ronnie Suttles. ``Meth is slow death. Meth lab operators are slick. It's here in this county and the surrounding area. We need your help. If you know somebody on this, call somebody.'' Jerry Orr, a Blount County Sheriff's Office narcotics investigator assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Knoxville and the 5th Judicial District Task Force, presented a seminar on meth labs recently in Townsend. Many rental hotel and cabin owners in the Townsend area attended the seminar at Townsend Visitors Center to gain insight into what to look for to determine whether a meth lab is or has been located on their property. ``Most people who make methamphetamine are users. They sell just enough to put a little money in their pockets,'' Orr said. ``Meth labs started appearing in the U.S. in the early '70s in California as the primary source of income for Hell's Angels,'' Orr said. ``It is known as crank because the motorcycle gang members put it in the crankcases of their bikes to transport it across the country to sell at places like bike meets.'' While meth labs started on the West Coast and spread across the entire nation, ``Tennessee, for the third year in a row, has led the nation in the number of meth labs discovered,'' Orr said. ``The Chattanooga area is overwhelmed with meth labs.'' Because meth cooking leaves a chemical smell like nail polish remover, manufacturers prefer remote, rural areas, a requirement that is ideally suited for the mountains and hollows of East Tennessee. On a scale of one to 10, Orr estimated the problem in Blount County would rate a five or six. The DEA, which covers 49 counties in Eastern Tennessee, works over 300 meth labs a year, up from 50 in 2000. This year three meth labs have been destroyed in Blount County, none in the Townsend area. People cooking meth would rather do it on someone else's property to avoid having their housing seized if they get caught by the law, Orr said. Campground operators should also be on the lookout for meth labs. ``APD (Alcoa Police Department) stopped a guy on Alcoa Highway that had hit campgrounds in Crossville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Townsend who had everything to make meth in the back of his truck,'' Orr said. Suttles estimated that 99 percent of the break-ins and petty thefts in the area are caused by meth users/cookers. Two women from another county were recently arrested for allegedly shoplifting several items that are ingredients in the meth-making process, including cold tablets, from a Blount County business. In their car, officers discovered additional medication for colds and allergies for a total of 1,200 pills. Orr said that 90 percent of the time these people pay in cash, and he urged that vacation rental agents require a photo ID. The man who rented out the cabin where the Townsend meth lab was found last year, stated that he never saw the license plates of either the car or truck the renters, a man and woman who posed as a married couple, drove because they always backed the vehicles up to the rental unit. The problem exists in counties all across the nation. Meth is so easily manufactured that almost all of the drug in the United States is produced in this country. Stimulates brain Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that affects the central nervous system. ``Meth is 10 times more addictive to the users we've talked to than crack cocaine,'' Orr said. It causes wakefulness, increased physical activity, decreased appetite, increased respiration, hypothermia and euphoria. One man Orr's team of seven investigators arrested ``had been awake for 40 days. It took four of us to get him to the hospital. After he went through detoxification he slept 41/2 days in jail and didn't know where he was when he finally woke up,'' he said. ``The life expectancy of meth users is five to seven years. If used enough it will shut down all your vital organs,'' Orr said. ``Meth users shoot it, snort it, take it orally or smoke it. A man arrested in Morgan County put it in his coffee every morning and he'd go (be high) for 18 hours.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin