Posted on: Friday, July 20, 2001

Editorial
'Ice' lab a threat to children's lives

A lot of us grew up in environments where drugs were present, if only on the fringe. Those who didn't experiment still almost certainly saw them around.

Our feelings about them may have been ambivalent. Particularly in the go-go '60s and '70s, there was the attitude that while some drugs were illegal, they weren't necessarily harmful.

Those recollections may be behind a tendency to look the other way when we see drug activities today. But we're no longer dealing with naive hippies and anti-war protests, but an epidemic of "ice" — crystal methamphetamine — that is a serious and direct threat to innocent lives.

Much has been written about how bad ice is. People strung out on this drug don't sleep for days. Spontaneous violence is a common byproduct.

What many of us may not be aware of is that a lot of this drug is manufactured among us, in our neighborhoods, by "cooks." This enterprise is lucrative and very dangerous.

A crystal meth lab is a powerful bomb waiting to level part of a neighborhood.

The meth lab busted this week in Kane'ohe is a scary case in point. Police lab personnel making the raid had to wear full-length, disposable protective body suits and self-contained breathing equipment.

And the lab was close enough to other homes to endanger the lives of dozens of others, including children, each day.

Neighbors smelled the weird fumes and saw the suspicious traffic coming and going. One nearby resident said his neighbors told him "just stay away" from the house. Good advice, in itself, but how many neighbors concluded it was none of their business? How long was the operation in place before police were notified?

"Ice" is a killer. It kills users, sellers, manufacturers — and innocent bystanders. Don't turn your back on such deadly activities. Turn 'em in.