News Home

WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL
By Mary M. Shaffrey

WASHINGTON

North Carolina law enforcement took center stage yesterday in the national battle against methamphetamine use.

Sheriff Mark Shook of Watauga County and Chief Deputy Phil Byers of Rutherford County joined other law-enforcement officials from around the country before a key House subcommittee to discuss what many referred to as the "scourge" of their communities - methamphetamine use.

"It's a community problem, its not a law-enforcement problem because everyone in the community has to deal with it," Shook said.

Byers agreed.

"Methamphetamine addicts and 'cooks' are driving some of Rutherford County's most costly social problems, including domestic violence, child abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and the spread of hepatitis and AIDS," he said.

Methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that deceives people into thinking that they have limitless stamina while it drains the body of energy. The euphoria gives way to depression, brain damage and other problems.

It is made using a chemical process to convert pseudo-ephedrine, which is found in over-the-counter medications. Recipes can be found on the Internet. Law-enforcement officers like to joke that any idiot can make methamphetamine, but most people learn the four-hour "cook" process from someone who already knows how.

The House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources invited officials from across the country to talk about methamphetamine use because the members say they are not getting enough information from the federal government on how the illicit drug can be stopped and how it is affecting their communities.

"Methamphetamine use has become the scourge of the area I care so much about," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, a member of the committee.

In addition to the local law-enforcement officials, federal officials from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Drug Enforcement Agency testified. They acknowledged a problem, but their answers and solutions did not satisfy lawmakers.

"This is not a new drug that just burst out on the scene," said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., the subcommittee chairman. "We see no national coordinated methamphetamine strategy."

The one thing that was clear from the testimony yesterday is that children are often those who are most hurt by the drug, even if they aren't using it.

Legislators listened attentively as one official after the other told heartbreaking stories of children who have been abused and neglected because their parents were using the drug. Some talked of children "Dumpster diving" for food because their parents were preoccupied with the drug use.

An official from Tennessee spoke of a 17-year-old who had to live at home with his methamphetamine-abusing parents after he had a liver transplant.

Shook talked about Breanna and James Chambers, who were kidnapped at gunpoint in January by their biological parents from foster care. Their parents, James Canter and Alisha Ann Chambers, lost custody when they were charged with operating a methamphetamine lab in Watauga County.

"Four days, an Amber Alert, and one car chase later, we recovered the children, thankfully unharmed," he said.

In 2004, 124 children in North Carolina were removed from homes where methamphetamine was in use, Byers said.

The drug problem, which began in California and has slowly moved east over the past 20 years, is typically most common in rural regions among lower-income people, officials said.

"Rural America needs help," said Don Owens, the police chief of Titusville in western Pennsylvania.

"It needs someone to listen to us, to help."