Pubdate: Wed, 02 Mar 2005
Source: Daily Times, The (TN)
Copyright: 2005 Horvitz Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.thedailytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1455
Author: Darren Dunlap
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH MANUFACTURE ON RISE

Mass-Produced Drug Coming From Mexico

In the last eight months Blount County has seen an increase in 
methamphetamine manufacture, a trend that will likely continue.

That's the forecast from speakers at one session of the East Tennessee 
Society of Professional Journalists workshop, "Drug Addiction and 
Recovery," held Monday at Cornerstone of Recovery in Louisville.

"It's so difficult to police," said Knox County District Attorney General 
Randy Nichols. "You can make it in your car."

The drug presents unique problems for law enforcement, according to Capt. 
Jimmy Long, assistant chief deputy, Blount County Sheriff's Office.

It's cheap and easy to make. The toxic environment created by meth labs 
often requires special teams of officers for meth lab seizure. The cost to 
clean up meth lab sites is an average of $8,000 each, said Long.

Officers require additional training, an ongoing process, according to 
Long. And inmates who use meth also need additional medical attention.

"The hidden costs of it are something to see," he said.

Long said meth manufacturing has been more common in surrounding counties 
like Monroe and Anderson, but two recent busts for manufacture of the drug 
show that it is creeping this way. In both cases, the people arrested in 
Blount County for making the drug were Monroe County residents.

Mass Produced In Mexico

Nichols said he expects to see more of the drug in both rural and urban 
areas. Meth, he said, is now being mass-produced in Mexico.

"I think this is going to work both sides of the drug market," said Long. 
"The guy that's just afraid to cook it can go buy it."

There is even a market for the sale of meth users' urine in jails and 
prison, as well as the street, according to Nichols.

"There is a market for the urine now," said Nichols, who asked Long, "How 
you going to police that, chief? What's next?"

Tennessee accounts for 75 percent of meth lab seizures in the southeast, 
according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

To raise awareness, the Tennessee District Attorney's Conference recently 
produced a video called "Meth is Death." Nichols showed participants at the 
ETSPJ workshop the video, which has interviews with recovering meth 
addicts, inmates jailed for meth production and accounts from police officers.

"If we can't educate children not to use it, I don't see how we can 
overcome it," he said.

Gov. Phil Bredesen recently introduced legislation aimed at addressing 
methamphetamine manufacturing and abuse called the "Meth-Free Tennessee Act 
of 2005."

Some major provisions of the bill include limitations on the sale of cold 
and sinus medicines containing the decongestant pseudoephedrine, a vital 
ingredient used to make meth; closure of the so-called "personal-use 
loophole" in criminal law, which allows meth cooks to get lighter penalties 
by claiming they manufactured the drug only for personal use; requirement 
of health professionals to report meth lab-related burns and injuries to 
local law enforcement; creation of an online registry within the state 
Department of Environment and Conservation listing properties quarantined 
by law enforcement due to meth lab contamination.

War Just Begun

Even with these measures, the war on meth has really just begun, speakers 
indicated. The state's first meth-related murder was less than a decade ago 
in Warren County.

"I don't think you've seen anything yet," said Nichols.

Monday's ETSPJ workshop, co-sponsored by The Daily Times and Cornerstone of 
Recovery, also included sessions on:

* Addiction: the neurobiology, pharmacology, genetics and other approaches 
to addiction, Cornerstone of Recovery Medical Director Dr. Gary O'Shaughnessy.

* A brief history of Cornerstone of Recovery, Dan Caldwell, Cornerstone of 
Recovery CEO.

* Blount County Drug Court program, Blount County Circuit Court Judge D. 
Kelly Thomas Jr.

* Treatment: model, goals, what's needed and what's necessary, Dr. Scott 
Anderson, Cornerstone of Recovery Clinical Director.

* A first-person account: addiction and recovery, Steve Wildsmith, Weekend 
editor of The Daily Times.

* The business of treatment: the cost of treatment vs. jail, insurance 
problems, Mark Hartley, Cornerstone of Recovery Chief Financial Officer.
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