Campaign puts face on meth addiction

BY MATTHEW LAKIN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Jan 17, 12:50 AM EST


BRISTOL, Tenn. – The faces of some former methamphetamine users could be coming to your television screen.

Public service announcements featuring four recovering meth addicts will begin airing soon across the state as part of Tennessee’s !Meth Destroys! campaign.

!They’re not actors,! said Greeley Wells, Sullivan County district attorney general and one of the campaign’s organizers. !They’re real people. I would hope anyone who sees them will take away the extreme danger that the use of methamphetamine imparts to anyone foolish enough to use it.!

Meth, a synthetic stimulant, mimics adrenaline to produce an intense, almost immediate high that can last for hours or even days. Cooks make the drug by using household chemicals to break down pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold and sinus pills.

The process produces poisonous gases and can cause fires and explosions.

Exposure to meth labs can lead to lung damage and other illnesses, while meth use can cause brain damage, paranoia and death. Some estimates place the average addict’s life expectancy as low as five years.

Sullivan County hasn’t seen as many meth cases as other, more rural areas such as the counties along the Cumberland Plateau, !but it’s just as dangerous here as it is anywhere else,! Wells said.

In the ads, the former users, including Lyn Noland, a mother of two from Nashville, and Wayne Tayes, a truck driver from Cookeville who lost his wife and daughter over his meth use, talk about how they became hooked on the drug and how it wrecked their lives.

!Meth is pure evil,! Tayes says in one of the ads. !If you have a weakness, it’ll find it.!

The ads also include an interview with Noland’s 12-year-old daughter, Shelby, who talks about watching her mother descend into addiction.

!I would never do meth because I saw what happened to my mom,! she says. !It was really sad to see my mom like that.!

Wells sees the ads as the next step in the state’s fight against the drug.

Authorities believe that fight began to turn in their favor last March, when the Meth-Free Tennessee Act banned over-the-counter sales of most forms of pseudoephedrine. Authorities raided 1,201 suspected meth labs across Tennessee last year, down from 1,574 in 2004, according to law enforcement statistics.

Other states have followed in moving pseudoephedrine behind the counter. Virginia took that step in October. Authorities there said they’ve seen a similar drop in the number of suspected labs, although the year’s totals weren’t available Monday.

Officials in both states believe they can trace the drop to the limits on pseudoephedrine sales, along with stiffer penalties for dealing and making the drug.

!That’s been true in every state,! Wells said. !But that law by itself is not enough.!

That’s why Tennessee prosecutors pooled their money last year to begin a statewide education campaign against the drug, he said. Strategies include the television ads and presentations to high school and middle school students.

The prosecutor plans to begin visiting local schools next week.

!Our goal is to get that message into all the middle and high schools across the state,! he said.