Meth awareness given its own day
Methamphetamine, an illegal drug, gets its own day and Tennessee law officers say the addictive stimulant deserves it.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declared yesterday as National Meth Awareness Day. In Tennessee, officials are observing ?Stop Meth in Tennessee, Start Right Now,? starting with a Grundy County news conference and enforcement promotional stops in Cleveland and Madisonville.
After ranking as a leader among states in meth-making operations seized, the work of the 7-year-old Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force ? now expanded statewide ? along with new laws restricting products used to make the drug have helped the state reduce the number of labs.
Meth is produced in clandestine labs using relatively inexpensive over-the-counter medicines, such as cold tablets with pseudoephedrine, and household chemicals. Tennessee passed a law to keep pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters.
Since passage of the Meth-Free Tennessee Act of 2005 and the federal Combat Meth Act of 2005, lab seizures in Tennessee have dropped significantly.
Records show 55 labs seized in October, down by 25 from October 2005.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Tommy Farmer, the task force director, said the accomplishments are many but the new challenge of intercepting imported methamphetamine from Mexico is growing.
?We have to be flexible,? Farmer said. ?We are seeing some changes. We are seeing increases in availability of Mexican methamphetamine. It?s a major problem.?
Farmer said the reduction in labs ?did not reduce the number of addicts.?
Farmer said the task force has operated and grown largely on the back of federal budget appropriations, a total of about $10 million, secured largely with the help of Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga.
He said the effort started from a meeting in Grundy County, at the request of former Sheriff Robert Meeks.
Farmer said the battle against meth has helped change drug enforcement to a team effort with social agencies and the courts. He said there are also ?protocols for how schools, hospitals, physicians, how everybody responds to children? exposed to meth.
?We are much better equipped,? Farmer said. ?We have to keep the focus. The war is not won by any stretch of the imagination.?