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Mike Moser Does the public have Methamphetamine is slowly doing to this country
what so many enemies tried and could not during our relatively
young history -- it is slowly destroying us. Some might find
that to be an overly dramatic statement, but I defer to the experts in the field. One federal investigators told local police
recently, "We are in the good times now. It will only get
worse." Meth labs are starting up like dandelions in spring. Two things make methamphetamines a very dangerous
drug to our community. One is the availability of components
required to make a clandestine meth lab. They are normal, household
items purchased legally at any number of stores in Crossville. The other danger, as Sheriff Butch Burgess
has said many times, is the terminal hold it has on users of
the drug. "I don't know of any person who has successfully
recovered from a meth addiction," Burgess said recently. The drug induces paranoia in heavy and long-time
users which often results in their arrest. Addicts mistakenly
increase their usage in an attempt to avoid the paranoia. Easy availability and its inexpensive production
make this one of the most dangerous drugs Cumberland Countians
can be exposed to, Burgess and his investigators say. And this doesn't even address the volatility
of the components of a meth lab and the danger they present to
firefighters and emergency responders. Recently a woman from Cumberland County was
arrested -- once in Putnam County and once in Cumberland -- for
possession of methamphetamine. The woman is a former librarian
at North Cumberland Elementary School who left under fire in
August 1999. The first time the suspect's name was published,
she was not identified as being associated with North Cumberland.
The second time she was identified as the
former librarian, which raised the outrage of "Why?" was the main question asked
in three e-mails from teachers and a telephone call from Principal
Wendell Wilson. The letter writers and most of their colleagues
shared the feeling that it was totally unnecessary to link the
suspect with the school. The answer is not complex but comes from the
community, whose members called when the suspect was arrested
the first time and asked, "Is this the same person who taught
at North Cumberland?" Judging from the phone calls we received,
there was enough interest in the community to find out and further
define the identity of the suspect. Parents and other members
of the community have a right to this information. Teachers who wrote said they felt North Cumberland
had been singled out and that their school had come under attack.
The fact is, if the suspect had been a former
reporter for the Crossville Chronicle, a former police officer,
a former firefighter or a former elected official, we would have
identified them as such. These things happen every day and it is not
our policy to attack institutions, or to cover up. The fact that we did not identify the suspect
as being associated with the school in the first story will attest
to our intentions and motives. It was only after receiving public
inquiries that we identified her as such in the second story. The entire affair is unfortunate for everyone involved, but it is not of our making. We are sorry the
North faculty feels they were personally attacked.
That, unfortunately, is their perception and not the truth. And what is being lost in all this is the fact that the suspect remains cloaked under the presumption of innocence and is still awaiting her day in court. |