INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana State Police are expecting to dismantle 800 clandestine methamphetamine labs, nearly 20 times the number of labs dismantled in 1998. Because of the increase in methamphetamine manufacturing statewide, the state police and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute on Thursday hosted a summit to address the increasing problem and ways to combat it. The Summit on Methamphetamine was designed to educate law enforcement officers unfamiliar with the signs of meth production. Auburn Police Chief Marty McCoy and three officers from his department attended the summit to learn more about meth. [continues 896 words]
LIGONIER - West Noble School Corp. could have a drug testing policy in place at the end of the month if board members approve a reasonable suspicion testing policy at their next meeting. Superintendent Bruce Hippensteel on Monday reviewed a draft of the policy with board members. The school corporation had a random testing policy ready in the fall, but an August ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals suspended that policy, Hippensteel said. The court threw out a random drug-testing policy in Kokomo.West Noble suspended its own random testing policy and began exploring a policy that would require the testing of any student, not just athletes, that school officials suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Hippensteel said. [continues 55 words]
