Tennessee launches online meth offender database
The Web site — http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/methor — will list anyone convicted of methamphetamine making, dating back to March 30. Other related crimes, like sales and use, will not be registered.
“The intent is to let people in communities know,” Jennifer Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said Friday. “We’ve found that chemicals used to make meth are very volatile and people have been dumping dangerous waste near their property.”
Methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant that can be smoked, snorted, eaten or injected, affects the central nervous system and is produced in clandestine labs using relatively inexpensive over-the-counter ingredients.
A new law enacted earlier this year requires pharmacies to put certain cold and allergy medicines that contain the chemical pseudophedrine — a crucial ingredient in the methamphetamine cooking process — behind the counter.
Other items used in the meth-making process can include camping fuel, matches, salt, engine starter fluid and drain cleaner. Such household items are harder to regulate through state laws.
The offender database is part of the law’s other goal to heighten public awareness about the drug.
Cooking methamphetamine creates toxic, sickening vapors. The state has taken hundreds of children from parents who exposed them to their labs, which also have caused burn injuries and deaths.
Last year, Tennessee law enforcement authorities seized more than 1,500 labs — the second-highest lab seizure rate in the nation after Missouri.
Annual lab seizures had fallen 32 percent to 1,042 by Dec. 8, according to the South/East Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force.
According to task force data, five counties accounted for almost one-third of all seizures this year: Coffee, Marion, Hamilton, Monroe and McMinn. Fifty-eight of the state’s 95 counties had five busts or fewer, including 15 with none.
Johnson said it’s uncertain whether the threat of being listed in the online registry will frighten off potential methamphetamine makers.
“It’s hard to say what kind of impact the embarrassment will have,” she said. “Some people are so addicted to meth that they’ll go back to it no matter what happens. A lot of people have lost their children and have still gone back to meth.
“If you’re willing to lose your children over meth, I’m not sure that a Web site will change anything,” she said.
Top Tennessee meth busts
By The Associated Press
As of Dec. 8, there had been 1,042 seizures of clandestine methamphetamine labs in Tennessee this year. The counties with the most busts were:
–Hamilton, 69
–Monroe, 66
–Coffee, 63
–Marion, 58
–McMinn, 57
–Warren, 54
–Grainger, 53
–Franklin, 45
–Anderson, 45
–Bradley, 43
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Source: South/East Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force.
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On the Net:
Tenn. Meth Offender Registry: http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/methor
Meth Free Tennessee: http://www.methfreetn.org