PROGRAM TO TEACH RESIDENTS HOW TO LOOK FOR METH LABS

LANCASTER - Yvette Worstall and Trisha Sounders want to educate
Fairfield County residents on how to prevent drug, alcohol and
especially methamphetamine abuse.

The deadline to sign up for their most recent effort - a seminar
titled "Drug Prevention: What's Faith Got To Do With It?"is at 5 p.m.
today. The seminar is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday.

Much of what's addressed in the program will be prevention associated
with methamphetamines. "Meth produced in labs in the community are a
hazard to the environment and the people living in that environment,"
Worstall said. "The chemicals needed to produce the drug can be
bought at any store, but they give off toxic fumes and are prone to
explosions."

Worstall is a staff sergeant in the Ohio National Guard Counter Drug
Task Force. She is assigned to The Recovery Center in Lancaster,
where Sounders is the associate director.

They are presenting the program that is sponsored jointly by Ohio
Parents for Drug Free Youth and the Community Coalition for a Drug
Free Fairfield County.

Investigators discovered and dismantled 286 meth labs in Ohio during
2004, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration of Ohio. The
DEA calculated that for every one pound of methamphetamine produced
in a lab, five pounds of toxic waste were produced.

Worstall said 60 people have registered for Thursday's training
session so far. Sounders said it would be tough to host such seminars
without Worstall's participation.

"We are very fortunate to have her here," Sounders said. "This is her
specialty, and because of her, we here at The Recovery Center are
able to do things like this training."

Worstall said the training session will instruct those who attend on
how to deal with drugs in the community, how to identify a
methamphetamine lab and how to address and prevent substance abuse.

Sounders and Worstall want youth leaders, religious leaders and other
community members at the event because the use of methamphetamines
and recreational drugs like marijuana, alcohol and cocaine are
perceived to be high in Lancaster.

"There is a big emphasis on methamphetamines because that is a
problem that is increasing in our area," Sounders said.

There have been nine major methamphetamine busts in Lancaster since
2003, according to the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office.

The most recent major bust occurred Aug. 10, when Major Crimes Unit
officers intercepted two pounds of crystal methamphetamine, worth a
street value of $25,000.