Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2005
Source: News-Enterprise, The (KY)
Copyright: 2005 News-Enterprise
Contact:  http://www.newsenterpriseonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1663
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

BEATING THE METH EPIDEMIC MEANS STARTING AT ITS ROOT INGREDIENTS

The effects of methamphetamine on the body and soul are frightening
enough.

But what has authorities so fearful is its production. It's a
dangerous, volatile process, to be sure. Moreover, meth also is easy
to make, if you know how to do it - a cupful here, a sprinkle there,
all with ingredients that heretofore have been as easy to collect as
the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner.

That's why, according to the state, the number of known meth
laboratories has jumped by more than 450 percent-from 104 labs in
2000 to 579 in 2004 - with labs discovered in 89 of Kentucky's 120
counties. It's easy profit for drug pushers, and its availability
makes it an easy high for its victims.

In that way, meth is something of a phenomenon - a highly addictive,
terribly destructive drug that can be produced just about anywhere,
anytime.

State legislatures across the U.S. are working to change that. On
Monday, a Kentucky Senate committee approved a bill that would set
strict limits on the sale of allergy and cold medicines that contain
pseudoephadrine, a decongestant that relieves nasal discomfort caused
by colds, allergies and hay fever but is sometimes used to manufacture
methamphetamine. Other states already have restricted sales of
pseudoephedrine. In Oklahoma, the number of known meth labs dropped 45
percent after the law went into effect.

The legislation is a step in the right direction. But there's got to
be more than government involvement, and thankfully, the growth of the
meth epidemic is bringing advocates out.

Some local stores already self-police the sale of pseudoephedrine.
Then there was an encouraging story last week out of Owensboro, where
the manager of a local fertilizer retailer approached his supervisors
about placing an additive called GloTell into its supplies of
anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer often stolen from farms because of
another, more dubious quality - it is a key ingredient in meth. A dye,
GloTell would turn the thief's hands pink for as long as 48 hours, a
smoking gun if ever there was one.

GloTell costs $1 an acre, but many believe the cost would be offset by
a drop in thefts and damage to farm equipment.

It is efforts like these - stopping the meth scourge at its source -
that have the best chance of defeating this newest of drug epidemics.
If authorities can't catch users until they've gotten hooked, maybe
they can stop the suppliers - pink-handed.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin