Bernie Ellis is an unrepentant soul. "I remain unashamed of what I was doing," he said on a recent afternoon, the first warm day since dogwood winter settled on the month of April. He sat on a deck at a West Meade home where he has been employed as a landscaper for several months. When lawmen raided his farm in August 2002, this man of medicine -- a professional public health consultant who has worked for anti-substance abuse programs across the country -- told officers he was growing marijuana for medical reasons. He also gave it to friends and acquaintances suffering from AIDS, cancer or chronic diseases. [continues 1412 words]
LEBANON -- A Trousdale County man has pleaded guilty to charges that he ran a huge underground marijuana-growing operation in a cave hidden under a house. Fred W. Strunk pleaded guilty this morning to three criminal charges: growing marijuana, money laundering and theft. He was sentenced to 12 years on the theft charge and 18 years for growing marijuana, with the sentences to be serve concurrently -- a move that will effectively give him an 18-year sentence. He was ordered to serve at least 30% of his sentence, or a little over five years, before becoming eligible for parole. He also must repay Tri-County Electric a total of $60,001 for electric power he stole from the utility to power the underground lights and other equipment that allowed him to grow the drug in the cave. [end]
Authorities Say Operation Could Grow 100 Pounds Every 8 Weeks HARTSVILLE, Tenn. - Investigators from the 15th Judicial District Drug Task Force found a mother lode of marijuana in the unlikeliest of places - a cave. Beneath a stylish A-frame home on Dixon Springs Road in eastern Trousdale County, three men allegedly set up a sophisticated operation to grow as much as 100 pounds of marijuana every eight weeks. "It's pretty amazing what they had under there - water for irrigation, special lighting, devices to keep the humidity just right. These guys were professionals. They knew what they were doing," said District Attorney General Tommy Thompson of Hartsville. [continues 430 words]
Cocaine Ferried, Cash Laundered In Scheme, FBI Says COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, FBI agents arrived at the Cookeville Police Department to arrest two men. The suspects were easily spotted. They wore blue ... and police badges. By noon, "Operation Tarnished Shield," a three-year effort by federal and state authorities to "root out corruption" in this Upper Cumberland Plateau city, also had resulted in the arrest of two former law enforcement officers. Four other individuals, for a total of eight, also were taken into custody as part of the undercover sting investigation that alleges police participation in a conspiracy to ferry cocaine and launder hundreds of thousands of dollars. [continues 1081 words]
Number Of Labs Seized Tumbles 49% In May, June Since Law Enacted The number of methamphetamine labs seized by authorities in Tennessee during May and June decreased significantly -- 49% statewide -- compared with the number of busts from the same months in 2004. The decline is attributed to Tennessee's stringent anti-meth legislation, which became effective May 1, according to the Governor's Task Force on Methamphetamine Abuse. "I think the thing that is responsible is the lack of being able to buy pseudoephedrine products by the pickup truck load. We just hope that the number stays going in the right direction. We think that it will,'' said Commissioner of Agriculture Ken Givens, who also is chairman of the task force. [continues 366 words]
In an operating room at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, burn specialist Dr. Jeffrey Guy peered at the outstretched arm of his patient. The limb is a raw, bloody span of flesh picked clean of damaged skin in preparation for grafts. The patient, who lives outside the Nashville area, was severely injured earlier this year when a methamphetamine lab exploded. Meth injuries are not unique at Vanderbilt's Regional Burn Center. A week ago, seven of the critical-care unit's 20 beds were filled by patients whose injuries were meth-related, either from making the homemade drug or from hurting themselves while under the influence of the highly addictive substance, according to Guy. [continues 999 words]
Non-pharmacies can't sell ephedrines after this morning; gelcaps and liquid forms exempt from new regulations If you awoke with the sniffles today, don't plan on making a midmorning run to the nearest convenience store for a supply of decongestant tablets. Today, as of 10:30 a.m., familiar products such as Sudafed, Actifed and hundreds of other over-the-counter cold tablets that contain ephedrine or pseudoephedrine are available for sale in Tennessee only at drugstores. In a move that mimics laws sweeping the nation, convenience stores, country stores, even health-food stores in Tennessee are prohibited from selling products that contain either of the two ingredients. [continues 689 words]
Last summer, three Middle Tennessee prosecutors decided to "go Hollywood" in a proactive measure to stem the growth of methamphetamine in their districts. Today their effort -- which grew to involve 19 other prosecutors -- is unveiled with the 1 p.m. premiere of a documentary film that tells the horrific stories of four methamphetamine addicts, one of whom permanently disfigured his face during a botched suicide attempt. The video pulls no punches in its narration or in its graphic visual images. "You're going to find this film pretty rough. By design we wanted to impress upon the young people just how dangerous this stuff is," said District Attorney General Dan Alsobrooks of the 23rd Judicial District, which includes Stewart, Houston, Humphreys, Dickson and Cheatham counties. Alsobrooks was one of the original three prosecutors involved in the effort, along with Ron Davis of Franklin and John Carney of Clarksville. [continues 385 words]
Governor Would Stiffen Penalty For Labs, Spend Money For Officers, Offenders, Children Gov. Phil Bredesen's plan to spend $7 million fighting the state's methamphetamine epidemic will be a diverse effort that funnels funds into incarceration and rehabilitation of offenders, more training for law enforcement officers and additional services for children taken from homes where meth labs have been seized, his office disclosed yesterday. In addition, a centerpiece of the governor's strategy calls for over-the-counter cold remedies, whose ingredients are vital to the manufacture of the highly addictive drug, to be sold only from behind store counters. [continues 574 words]
Two young adults who died while attending this year's Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., succumbed to drug use, according to the state medical examiner. Forensic pathologist Bruce Levy said Brandon Taylor, 20, of Lowell, Mich., and Amber Lynn Stevens, 22, of Flatwoods, Ky., died from "acute combined drug toxicity," according to autopsy reports. He ruled that both deaths were accidental and due to taking "too many drugs too soon." According to Kris Rinerson of Levy's office, death occurred in each case "because of the combined effects of all the drugs in the body." [continues 434 words]
Policy Sought For Lifting Quarantine On Property A blue-ribbon panel has asked Gov. Phil Bredesen to help speed up the process for writing rules on decontaminating sites where the drug methamphetamine has been made. The Governor's Task Force on Methamphetamine Abuse has asked the governor to relax rules for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as they study the issue. The task force, led by state Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens, said the process needs to be abbreviated because of a state law that went into effect July 1. [continues 491 words]
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Educating the public about the dangers of methamphetamine abuse should be a major thrust of any effort to combat abuse of the homemade drug, the Governor's Task Force on Methamphetamine Abuse was told yesterday. "One of the things I've found out in talking about meth is that people constantly say they didn't know about it, or that it was as big a problem as it is," said Dr. Sullivan Smith, a member of the task force and an emergency room physician in Cookeville. [continues 435 words]
MANCHESTER, Tenn. -- The three-day party in the cow pasture, officially known as Bonnaroo 2004, is over. As crews on Friday continued to haul away a mountain of trash created by 90,000 visitors, Coffee County residents had begun sorting through a mountain of concerns about the annual event. With two deaths of patrons, the first in the event's history, many have said the festival is no longer just a weekend of good vibes and good fun. Some Coffee Countians have said the honeymoon with Bonnaroo is over. They have raised questions about security with such a large crowd and what they think is a "wink and nod" attitude toward drug use. [continues 1925 words]
Legislative Committee Didn't Agree on Approach Gov. Phil Bredesen has named 20 Tennesseans from across the state to the Governor's Task Force on Methamphetamine Abuse. The complete list of members was announced yesterday, two weeks after Bredesen announced that state Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens will be chairman of the panel. Bredesen agreed to appoint the task force after a joint House/Senate committee failed to reach a consensus about which of 31 meth-related bills would be passed on for a vote by the General Assembly. Many of the bills required expenditures of millions of dollars, something the committee was not willing to do. [continues 234 words]
Members want Bredesen to step in, form task force to address drug issue A joint state House-Senate committee on methamphetamine legislation could not find millions in this tight economic climate to fund a variety of proposals aimed at stemming the state's fast-spreading epidemic. Instead, Gov. Phil Bredesen will be asked to step in. The ad hoc committee, headed by state Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, has recommended that the governor form a task force that will craft comprehensive meth-related legislation over the summer and fall and report to the General Assembly before the 2005 session begins. [continues 356 words]
While TennCare's budget crunch may be the legislature's most visible statewide problem, the methamphetamine epidemic in the state's rural counties has attracted considerable attention, too. No fewer than 31 meth-related bills have been proposed. The most common point of attack is on two fronts: increasing punishment for offenders and putting restrictions on the sale of raw products used to make the homemade drug. ''The biggest thing is that we are doing something,'' said Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, who has proposed some of the most far-reaching legislation. His bill is named the Tennessee Comprehensive Methamphetamine Prevention, Treatment and Control Act of 2004. [continues 1215 words]
Clerks To Call In Suspicious Buys Of Ingredients Tennessee's store clerks, drugstore cashiers and market workers will be the eyes and ears of drug enforcement agents as part of a new effort to stem methamphetamine production in the state. At the Tennessee Meth-amphetamine Response Conference, which opened yesterday and continues through tomorrow at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville, TBI Acting Director David Jennings unveiled a new voluntary program called ''Meth Watch.'' Under the program, store employees will soon notice a poster that lists and shows the products used to make meth, a highly addictive drug that can be produced in a kitchen using a variety of common products, such as drain opener, muriatic acid and cold pills. Stores affected include convenience stores, drugstores, discount retailers such as Wal-Marts, grocery stores, and the like. [continues 348 words]
As sheriff of Cumberland County, Butch Burgess has seen more misery caused by methamphetamine addiction than he cares to ponder. While he's sorry for the choices made by adults who succumb to the homemade drug, his sympathy centers on the minor children of meth users. Through no fault of their own, they are removed from their homes and placed in state custody. Sometimes they have to wait in the lobby at the county jail until Department of Child Services workers place them with relatives or with foster homes. Burgess, a foster parent for 10 years, believed there had to be a better way. [continues 489 words]
Methamphetamine, the homemade drug that has become the scourge of the Cumberland Plateau east of Nashville, is slowly moving into western Middle Tennessee. But there's a difference in the manufacturing processes between the two regions. Instead of "cooking" a witch's brew of chemicals on a stove, as the makers do on the plateau, the self-taught chemists in Hickman, Humphreys and Wayne counties use anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer, to create a heat-producing chemical reaction. It's called the "Nazi method." [continues 646 words]
Plants seized this year up almost 22% from '02; rainfall meant ideal growing conditions For the third consecutive summer, the number of confiscated marijuana plants in Tennessee has increased, according to the Governor's Task Force on Marijuana Eradication. Apparently the wet summer has been good for the state's most valuable cash crop, which has an estimated street value of more than $600 million. Seizure of pot plants so far this summer increased to 591,601, nearly a 22% rise from 2002's tally of 485,751 plants. [continues 462 words]
