Pubdate: Thu, 05 Feb 2004
Source: Mountain Times, The (NC)
Copyright: 2004 The Mountain Times.
Contact: P.O. Box 1815, Boone, NC 28607
Website: http://www.mountaintimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1699
Note: Does not accept  LTEs via email or feedback form.  All LTEs must be 
mailed.
Author: Kathleen McFadden
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

STATE METH REPORT REFLECTS COUNTY INITIATIVES

Within days after North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper released a 
report on the state's exploding methamphetamine problem, the Watauga County 
Sheriff's Office reported the arrest of four more producers at two 
residential labs in Todd, bumping to six the number of meth labs discovered 
in January alone. Those arrests underscore the local emphasis and immediacy 
of the findings and recommendations in Cooper's report.

Based on input and discussions from prosecutors, law enforcement officers, 
public health and social services officials and others statewide who 
participated in a methamphetamine summit last October, the recommendations 
in Cooper's report are essentially a restatement of issues that members of 
the multiagency Watauga County Drug-Endangered Children Response (DEC) Team 
have been discussing, implementing and advocating for months.

The report credits the county's response team for its initiative, stating, 
"In Watauga County, the social services department has taken the lead in 
establishing their Drug-Endangered Children Response Team. The team members 
include law enforcement officials, prosecutors, child welfare personnel, 
medical and public health providers. The purpose of the response team is to 
develop a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary response to children found 
in meth labs." One of the recommendations in the report is for the attorney 
general to convene a statewide conference to give other social service 
departments in the state guidance on how to form their own response teams. 
The Watauga County team, which has already provided a significant amount of 
one-on-one guidance to other counties, would figure prominently at such a 
conference.

Other recommendations in Cooper's report address what prosecutors and law 
enforcement officers consider inadequacies in state law for dealing with 
the social and environmental effects of methamphetamine production. The 
report calls on the General Assembly to stiffen the penalties for the 
manufacture of methamphetamine, for child endangerment (in 2003, children 
were found residing in 25 percent of North Carolina homes with meth labs), 
for possession of precursor chemicals and for providers of methamphetamine 
when a fatal overdose occurs.

Locally, District Attorney Jerry Wilson attempted to prosecute meth 
offenders under the state's chemical weapons law to achieve higher bails 
and longer prison terms with conviction, but Superior Court Judge James 
Baker ruled that the charge was unconstitutional.

Another recommendation in the report is to increase public awareness and 
detection by educating the public, training targeted individuals (such as 
farmers, garbage collectors, hotel workers and landlords) to recognize the 
signs of a meth lab and educating prosecutors about the problem.

Locally, Sheriff Mark Shook and other officers, with the assistance of 
forensic toxicologist Dr. Andrew Mason, have presented a number of public 
awareness sessions at area libraries and other venues. In addition, a 
community awareness meeting held in Boone last fall featured presentations 
from Cooper and top State Bureau of Investigation officials. And while 
local prosecutors do not need any education about the problem, members of 
the DEC Response Team, including District Court Judge Bill Leavell, have 
worked to educate judges about the precursor products used to make meth, 
the dangers inherent in the manufacturing process and the environmental 
damage caused by careless disposal of the byproducts.

Finally, the report recommends improving intervention by working with 
retailers to monitor the sale of precursor products, training first 
responders in the dangers associated with meth labs, increasing resources 
for law enforcement, convening the statewide conference to disseminate 
technical assistance to social service agencies, developing an appropriate 
medical protocol and supporting the development of statewide guidelines for 
the decontamination of meth lab sites.

Locally, the DEC Response Team has developed a medical protocol that will 
be submitted to Watauga Medical Center emergency room physicians for their 
review. The Sheriff's Office has been educating retailers about the 
over-the-counter products used to manufacture the drug. Following the lung 
injury to Deep Gap firefighter Darien South who was hurt when he responded 
to a meth fire, danger awareness and training have been beefed up and the 
county staged a disaster drill last year to simulate a meth lab fire with 
multiple casualties. Among others, the drill involved first responder 
teams, local law enforcement, the Boone Fire Department and Watauga Medical 
Center. The Watauga County Board of Commissioners has allocated additional 
funds to the Sheriff's Office to help combat the meth problem, and Lawrence 
Caviness, environmental health supervisor with the Appalachian District 
Health Department, has participated in efforts to develop a decontamination 
protocol.

While much remains to be done at the state level to combat the problem and 
cope with its effects, public and private agencies across the county have, 
through their collaborative efforts, set the standard for statewide response.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman