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This week I produced a feature on methamphetamine in Louisville. I got the idea from the story at a press conference earlier this year. The Mayor, Sergeant Stan Salyards and other officials unveiled the new anti-meth campaign. I wanted to know if the increased arrests they were making were really due to extra vigilance, or if more people were making meth. It turns out that while there aren’t any exact statistics, Dr. Vito and Dr. Suresh’s preliminary numbers show that labs are being busted faster than they are being built.
The subject of meth is getting more play in world of TV, with AMC’s critically-acclaimed series ‘Breaking Bad.’ The show follows Walter White, a chemistry teacher who starts manufacturing crystal meth to pay for his cancer treatments. He’s joined by his former student, Jesse Pinkman, who sells the meth.
The show is good, and while it is set in America (Albuquerque), nothing like that is likely happening in Louisville. For one, Walter makes crystal meth in a very complicated mobile lab. According to Sergeant Salyards, the labs the LMPD finds are smaller, sometimes single-pot labs. These compact setups are still dangerous (lithium is combustible in moist air), but they produce a less pure, powdered version of meth. Also, Walter in Breaking Bad doesn’t use meth. Salyards says almost every lab busted was set up by a user who was making a personal supply.
I also interviewed a prosecutor for the story. None of her comments made it into the final product, but she offered insights into the meth community. She corroborated Salyard’s claim that local meth manufacturers make it for themselves, but she told me about Smurfs. Smurfs are meth users who help gather supplies for manufacturers in exchange for drugs. The Smurf system is particularly helpful in getting more pseudoephedrine for labs. Three people buying the legal limit of cold medicine from one pharmacy are less likely to be caught than one person buying the legal limit at three pharmacies.
In Breaking Bad, Walter and Jesse steal the chemicals they need for meth, rather than go to drug stores. But that’s fiction. There is crystal meth in Louisville, but it’s imported the same way crack, cocaine and heroin are. The people manufacturing those drugs are in other cities and countries, and are not often thought to be users of their own product, since their operations are for profits, not personal use.
Both of our stories about the swine flu outbreak point out that there’s no reason to panic. But, if you can’t stop thinking about fighting the flu, knowledge is your best weapon. Here are some helpful sites.
First, you can learn how to track the flu.
Then you can get updates from NPR’s flu blog.
And finally, rejoice that we have experts in the field locally. Check out Ronald Atlas, Co-Director of the Center for Health Hazards Preparedness at the University of Louisville in this video from the Aspen Institute.
As a bonus, here’s a TED Talk from Steven Johnson. He literally wrote the book on epidemics. (A book, anyway)
“We have to have this done before [Council President] David Tandy and his wife have their next child,” says Metro Councilman Kelly Downard about the list of budget priorities Mayor Abramson requested last week.
The Tandys’ child is due on May 11th. So is the council’s assignment. They have to come together and tell the mayor how they would like money to be taken out of the budget, if the city’s team of economists predicts flat or negative growth for the next fiscal year.
To use Downard’s example, the council will need to determine if libraries take precedence over parks, and which parks should be cut first, if need be. Councilman Jim King says the priorities could also be helpful if the budget needs to be cut after it’s passed, like the last two budgets have. The more than $20 million cut from the current budget will have to stay out of the new plan unless revenue growth is predicted.
What’s more, inflation and other costs (pensions, etc) will put a strain on revenue for FY10, and some of the cuts that were made in FY09 may not be sustainable. That means layoffs and dramatic cuts are possible. Or, as the mayor puts it, “Everything is on the table.”
The final recommendation from the council on what to cut will take the form of one document, most likely supported by a majority of council members. The mayor is under no obligation to heed the recommendations, and Downard says even if Abramson does listen to the council, that doesn’t mean the budget will win easy passage.
Budgets are rarely passed easily or un-amended in other cities, states and in the Federal Government. But it seems like the mayor’s effort to consult the council is an attempt to reduce contention this summer, when his proposed spending plan goes before the council.
Downard says this is the way for the council to fulfill the promise of the merger – to have representatives from across the county help the mayor put together legislation. Do you agree? Or does the council do its assigned job when it debates, amends and passes legislation put forward by the mayor?
We reported today that the debris pickup in Louisville is a bigger job than previously thought.
The ice storm hit parts of the state even harder, and western Kentucky, the cleanup has been a bit more dangerous.
From the AP:
A WORKER REMOVING DEBRIS FROM AN ICE STORM WAS KILLED WHEN THE LIFT HE WAS STANDING IN CAME INTO CONTACT WITH A POWER LINE.
THE MESSENGER OF MADISONVILLE REPORTS 38-YEAR-OLD RAYMOND MORRIS WAS APPARENTLY ELECTROCUTED IN THE WEEKEND ACCIDENT.
PROVIDENCE ASSISTANT POLICE CHIEF BRENT MCDOWELL SAYS MORRIS WAS ALOFT IN A SCISSORS TRUCK WHEN THE INCIDENT OCCURRED ABOUT 4:50 P.M. FRIDAY.
MORRIS WAS TRANSPORTED TO REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, WHERE HE WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD. HOPKINS COUNTY CORONER DENNIS MAYFIELD SAID IT APPEARED 38-YEAR-OLD RAYMOND MORRIS HAD BEEN ELECTROCUTED. MORRIS, OF PROVIDENCE, WORKED FOR WARE TRUCKING.
THE DEATH WAS THE 37TH THAT KENTUCKY OFFICIALS SAY CAN BE
CONNECTED TO THE JANUARY ICE STORM.
