The South/East Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force is set to protect the entire state and serve as a law enforcement model to the entire nation.

But it didn't start out that way.

When methamphetamine really began to hit our state about 11 years ago, the labs that produced meth sprung up in southeastern Tennessee, a rural and mountainous area that has little industrial base. From moonshining to marijuana growing, southeastern Tennessee has a history of trade in illegal products as families struggled to make ends meet.

But methamphetamine is a killer and destroys families. The most heart-wrenching victims of the meth trade are the children who are orphaned when the parents overdose or are put in prison for dealing. Made in home-built labs with easy to obtain over-the-counter drugs, local law enforcement officials across the country now rank meth as the nation's number one drug problem.

That's why the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee wasted no time in focusing on this scourge and developing an effective model for rooting out meth "cooking" labs.

The creation of the South/East Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force in consolidated law enforcement efforts and resources of the police departments in 41 counties to focus on destroying labs and getting convictions instead of just arresting and re-arresting drug dealers through a frustrating system of what is sometimes referred to as a "revolving door of justice."

That area of the state, however, is very difficult to police because of the terrain. In addition, because the counties themselves don't have large tax base, the little law enforcement that did exist - often times just two deputies covering an entire county through the night - was stretched quite thin.

Those departments were also not trained or financially prepared to clean up the toxic sites meth labs leave in their wake. Each pound of meth leaves behind five to six pounds of toxic waste and the cost of a single lab cleanup ranges from $2,000 to $10,000. In addition, they were not equipped to do the surveillance necessary to find the labs.

That has all changed.

At the joint request of three U.S. Attorneys representing Tennessee's meth fighters, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee I have fought to provide proper funding for the task force. And with the forceful support of Tennessee's Senators we were able to secure their request of $3 million to continue their operations. The funds are included in the recently approved House/Senate conference report of the Commerce, State, Justice and Commerce appropriations legislation. 

Despite these tough fiscal times, the first role of government is protecting the citizens who created it. The task force is doing that job admirably and this is money well-spent. Tennessee is now second in the nation with the number of meth labs busted and South/East Task Force is the benchmark for other states that are serious about stemming the tide of this evil drug.