Submitted by: Tim McCartney
It is the rare day that you can pick up the newspaper, listen to or watch the news and not hear about another methamphetamine lab being discovered in or around Clermont County/Southwest Ohio.
After an explosion of production and use in California in the 80’s & 90’s "meth" has, over the last decade, been making its way to the eastern part of the country. This highly addictive, destructive drug now often finds a home in our area. Sometimes it’s good to be "behind the times"…
It’s difficult to overestimate the impact of meth in Clermont County. Our entire community is being affected. All of us are paying the immense costs of this drug. Meth can destroy the lives of its users and damages the lives of those around them. There are many costs incurred in our community when a "meth lab" is busted. Some of those costs are obvious, some not so.
What is a meth lab? Folks this is not chemists walking around in sterile white lab coats carefully mixing chemicals in test tubes and being cooked with a flame controlled Bunsen burner. This is, in many cases, desperate drug addicted people mixing, cooking and ingesting substances (hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern fuel, antifreeze, starter fluid) in environments (barns, garages, motel rooms, vehicles) that increase the level of risk to themselves, their families, and neighbors through fire and explosion.
Production and use of methamphetamines is not a "victimless crime". We are all victimized when these labs go into operation because we pay the costs brought on the community.
- Costs of law enforcement personnel who investigate these operations. Officers often require decontamination equipment after uncovering the sites.
- There are judicial and correctional system costs for those who are arrested, go to trial and go to jail. Since many of these operations are, unfortunately, "Family Affairs" (minus "Mr. French") it is often parents, aunts and uncles going to jail.
- When parents & relatives go away there are the dramatic monetary and emotional costs associated with finding foster homes for the children left behind.
- Many of these children may suffer physical and mental health issues as a result of the exposure to meth that puts an additional financial burden on the taxpayer who foot the bill for the ongoing attention they need. In the last year alone over 40 children in Clermont County have been taken into care as the result of meth labs.
- Meth labs are environmental nightmares. Some sights require expensive clean up due to those environmental concerns.
- Property values can be affected because homes or apartments are often left abandoned after the chemicals involved in meth production have seeped into the walls and floors making the sight an undesirable place to live.
- Employers suffer from the effects of this drug due to lost work time of employees and poor performance when users of the drug due manage to show up to work.
- Southwest Ohio, with Clermont County at the top of the list, leads the state in the discovery of meth labs. While it is critical that these explosive environments be uncovered, the shear numbers of busts do not send a positive message to businesses thinking about relocating to our community.
Where do we go from here? Clermont County and Southwest Ohio have not always had meth labs so it is reasonable to believe we can again be free of them. The Clermont County Sheriffs Department has done a remarkable job in proactively addressing this growing issue. They should be applauded for their efforts but they can’t do it alone. Now it’s time that we all recognize methamphetamines as a community and regional problem. We need collectively become more aware of the impact they are having on our community and collectively make the production of this drug difficult in our community... This effort needs to be a mix of public and private organizations and responsible citizens who band together to say enough is enough. We must force those who would rather destroy our community than build it...out for good. Death2Meth.
Sign me up.
Tim McCartney is the Director of the Clermont County Department of Job & Family Services and one of the originators of the "Death2Meth" project