01-11-2005A growing community concern was met with increased public interest Monday, as approximately 150 people attended a seminar at Lakeview Middle School to learn about methamphetamine.
Sponsored by Meth Watch, a group composed of educators and law enforcement personnel, the seminar, said Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine, was “to help educate the public on what meth is and how to combat the problem. ... We’re here to educate the public to help you learn how to get involved to get rid of this problem in Kosciusko County.”
Members of the public attending the seminar included school personnel, parents, grandparents, children, law enforcement officers and even people from other counties.
Monday’s seminar was the first of three in the county. The second will be today at 7 p.m. at Tippecanoe Valley High School, and the third will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Wawasee High School.
The main presentation, given by Kosciusko County Sgt. Tony Ciriello, of the county’s Drug Task Force, explained what meth is, what it looks like in “rock” or powder form and how it affects users.
“There is nothing more addictive than methamphetamine,” he said.
Later, he added that 98 percent of meth users become addicted because of the chemical changes meth causes in the user’s brain.
Mike Winston, certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor at the Bowen Center, explained the body’s chemical reactions to meth, and said, pointing at a poster of an emaciated meth user, “People don’t do this because it feels good – they do it because the brain has hijacked the body.”
Slides showed side effects of meth use and provided information on how to spot a user.
But the main point of the program was helping people understand the depth of the problem and teaching them how to spot signs of a meth lab.
Precursors – ingredients used to make meth – were displayed on a table, and Ciriello pointed out that they are everyday objects, such as large glass jars, rock or table salt, cold pills, starter fluid, drain cleaner, lithium batteries and anhydrous ammonia.
He also said the method of making meth is to heat specific ingredients that are already combustible, and the process is dangerous and toxic, not only to the people making the meth, but to the neighborhood as well.
“It’s in neighborhoods that you wouldn’t believe it would be in,” Ciriello said. “There’s no difference from white collar to blue collar.”
To help spot a meth lab, he told the audience to watch for an unusually strong odor, blacked out or covered windows, a large number of chemical containers, lots of traffic at night in the neighborhood, exhaust fans in the windows (especially out of season), presence of bottles and jugs and secretive or paranoid occupants.
Anyone who suspects they may know of the location of a meth lab, he said, should write down the location, times the odor is the strongest, when traffic is the heaviest, vehicle descriptions and license numbers if available, a description of the house occupants and details that led to the suspicion of a meth lab.
“But by no means put yourself at risk,” he said. Call the Drug Task Force or the Sheriff’s Department and let them take care of it.
Kyle Dukes, of the Indiana State Police Clandestine Lab Team, spoke on the volatility of the chemicals used to make meth and how the team cleans up labs.
Meth lab waste is treated as hazardous waste, he said, and each lab takes an average time of four to seven hours to clean up and costs approximately $5,000 per lab.
In 2003, he said, the team cleaned up 1,300 meth labs in Indiana, and in 2004, though the final numbers aren’t yet in, “we’re easily looking at 1,500,” he said. “And if the Clandestine Lab Team cleaned up 1,500 in 2004, there were 1,500 that we didn’t clean up.”
To educate on the medical effects of the drug, Dr. Michael Williams, medical director of KCH, and Winston, from the Bowen Center, went over the physical effects of the drug and the difficulties of treatment.
For a light meth user, Winston said, it takes six to eight months after withdrawal for the brain to normalize. For a heavy user, it can take as long as two years.
Presentations were followed by a question-and-answer period, and Ciriello emphasized that anyone who wants to report suspicious behavior can call anonymously to the Drug Task Force at 574-372-2494 or the Kosciusko Sheriff’s Department at 574-267-5667.