SUMMIT AIMS TO CURB METH TREND

Meth becomes dangerous before it's ever made.

A toddler in a home being used as a meth lab comes across some lye
and puts a little in his or her mouth. By the time Dr. Cynthia Brown
and her colleagues see him, his mouth and tongue are severely burned.

Brown's work with such victims at Mission Children's Clinic is one
link in Western North Carolina's efforts to deal with methamphetamine
addiction. Wednesday offers a chance for the public to see how the
links fit together.

A summit at Western Carolina University brings together experts from
law enforcement, social services, medicine, government and the media.

They share a determination to curb the growing number of meth labs in
North Carolina -- at least 289 destroyed so far this year, and a
total last year of 322. The experts will share knowledge and
solutions with each other and the public.

"The more aware the community is, the more likely they are to
recognize that there's a lab next door," Brown said. She's on a list
of speakers that includes Attorney General Roy Cooper and Principal
Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Leaders and experts will learn how their counterparts elsewhere in
the state have succeeded, said Gordon Mercer, director of the
university's Public Policy Institute that organizes the summit.

"Some communities have done a better job in terms of integrating
approaches and working together," Mercer said, pointing to task
forces in Rutherford County as a model approach.

The Public Policy Institute devotes its annual forum to a critical
problem in Western North Carolina. It publishes a report on the issue
after the summit.

Western Carolina University students benefit from organizing and
attending the summit, Mercer said.

"Students become involved in some of the critical issues of our time
period," he said.