Meth lab in a Coleman fuel can

“Apparently there's a new trend to do full blown methamphetamine cooks in Coleman camp fuel cans. If you see a large Coleman fuel can and it looks suspicious for any reason, don't pick it up and move it. These things are obviously under a lot of pressure and can explode. Call local law enforcement.

"Methamphetamine cooks using the “one-pot” method combine the anhydrous ammonia (or fertilizer from which it is extracted), the pseudoephedrine tablets, water, and the reactive metal (ie. Lithium) into one container from the beginning of the process. The idea is to reduce the amount of time needed for the overall process. The danger to subjects and to law enforcement is due to the mixing of all of the ingredients in the one container. The concentration of products builds up the ether pressure within the sealed container to levels beyond which the containers were not built to withstand. The building pressure can create a rupture or bursting of the container exposing the ingredients within to the air. Beyond the damage from the bursting container, exposure of items such as lithium to the air then creates further explosive danger. The growing use of the one-pot method increases the danger to law enforcement and civilians from explosions, fires, and exposure to dangerous chemicals."”

“Dang, adding lithium to water? Can you say BOOM?”

“Thanks for the recipe BearCrossing.

Gotta run now. Can't afford to sit around doing nothing!”

“I was going to post a link to these, but they're not up on our website yet. In the first story, the guy looks hideous. I'll post his photo and a link to it shortly.

STORIES ARE COPYRIGHT LIZS!!!!

The breaking point: Meeting meth,
beating it and now helping others

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on the effects of meth use. The sec-ond article next week will focus on Fillmore County.

David Parnell’s face says it all.

He cannot tell a lie because of his misshapen face, its scars and discolorations.

However, speaking to a crowded gym at Lanesboro Friday night, Parnell – a reformed methamphetamine user and dealer – recalled telling a little girl who recently asked that his “big nose” is similar to the character of Pinocchio. And we all know that Pinocchio did indeed lie.

Parnell’s history involves selling drugs, spending weeks at a time on drugs, abusing his wife, ignoring his seven children, prison, contemplation on shooting his mailman and the self-inflicted gunshot wound that left him near death and gave him a face no one can forget.

Now a born-again Christian and reformed drug user, Parnell shares his story through a program called “Facing the Dragon,” hoping to keep others from the horrors of meth and to give hope to those already ad-dicted.

His talk in Lanesboro was sponsored by the Lanesboro Schools and Fillmore County Corrections, along with input from the Sheriff’s Department, Corrections Task Force and Public Health departments of Fill-more County.

Becoming an addict

Parnell, 38, of Martin, Tennessee, opened his talk by calling meth “one of the worst drugs ever… one of the most evil.”

He ran through the many names for various forms of meth and listed the ways it can be used, by smoking, snorting, injecting or taking it orally.

Cooking meth, Parnell said, is dangerous because its ingredients are very explosive. Recipes to make it can be found on the internet, but he pointed out that many are wrong and could be written by a person “with a sick sense of humor… they will blow up.”

By the time Parnell was a high school senior, he was hooked on cocaine. He soon married his high school sweetheart. A star basketball player, shown on the projector screen in large photos, Parnell was expected to go on to college and bigger things. That he did, but not in any positive way.

“I blamed everyone for my problems but myself… I had a bad attitude and made bad choices,” he stated.

Moving to Dallas, Texas, Parnell got into a crank (a form of meth) house. He warned his audience not to try crank or meth because “95 percent who try it get hooked… I don’t need no statistics to tell me that.”

At first, he explained, meth will make a person feel strong and that he or she can think more clearly. But then it has a reverse effect and “you can’t think clearly,” said Parnell.

After being divorced, Parnell married again. Selling dope in Oklahoma, he was caught in a police raid and served two years in jail.

“Prison was tougher than I expected,” he said.

Also, Parnell noted he is in favor of law enforcement officials going after money owed due to drug tax laws when drug dealers are arrested.

When he got out of prison two years later, “Meth had exploded.”

Hallucinations

Parnell always figured people were lying when they said they saw things while on meth.

“But I did… I saw shadow people… and other weird stuff,” he stated. Later, he recalled stalking his mailman from bushes in his yard, ready to shoot the man who had no idea he was a target.

Parnell said meth addicts fear people are trying to find them and steal from them or turn them in. That irrational fear can lead to innocent persons getting hurt or killed, he stated.

As he became more addicted, Parnell figured he must also get his wife addicted, so she would not bother him about things. Also, he stated that women on drugs will take the abuse from their men.

“She became hooked immediately,” he said. “I gave my wife poison. It was cold-blooded. This dope – meth – it robs your compassion and love.”

Then, Parnell said, their kids started suffering. He felt he was a good father because he never did drugs in front of his children, yet he was at home and available.

He then recalled having a gun ready to use on his wife and holding a knife to her. This time she reported it, police came and he was arrested and put in jail. Parnell’s guns also were taken.

When released, he stayed off drugs for a month and felt the world was his to conquer. But then Parnell smoked marijuana and was soon back on meth.

“I was only successful when I quit everything,” he stated, noting that a person feeling he or she can stick to just one drug does not play out in real life.

His wife took their kids and left him. Parnell then became suicidal.

“I heard a man’s voice. It said my wife and kids would be better off if I were dead,” said Parnell.

The voice also asked why he would think that Jesus Christ would forgive him for what he’d done.

Parnell tried to hang himself. For some reason, he later woke up on the floor. His sister had found him. He was then sent to a rehab center by a preacher. He stayed off drugs for five months.

“It felt great,” he said.

But later Parnell reverted to old friends and old ways.

“Sometimes we make bad decisions. But we should realize we make mistakes and not give up,” he said.

Back in the throes of meth, he told his wife he needed guns. Parnell explained it’s a paranoia, that you believe people are after you. He would accuse his wife of doing things.

“She gave her life over to Jesus,” he said, explaining she got off drugs.

At the same time, Parnell said, “My paranoia was so bad, I was danger to the community. I figured the police would kill me. I thought about shooting the mailman and other people. The mailman never knew he was in danger… I could have been stalking you.”

Breaking point

In 2002, his wife said she was leaving. Parnell was weak and laying down and asked his wife to lay beside him. With her at his side, he reached over her and grabbed a gun.

“Before she could grab it, I took the safety off. And she knew the guns were always loaded,” stated Parnell.

Attempting suicide, he shot himself from under his chin. It broke all the bones in his face. It blew off his nose. Parnell ex-plained that only a couple bone pieces blew inward, stating that if any would have hit his brain, he would have been dead.

“They went outward,” he said.

While it appeared he might die at his home, Parnell pulled through and his now gone through numerous surgeries to help reshape his face. It also has reshaped his life and given him a mission, sharing the tragic tale of meth.

While in the hospital, his wife told him she was pregnant with their seventh child. Parnell felt he’d been part of a miracle. They named the baby Gabriel.

“Using meth… you’ve given yourself a death sentence,” said Parnell.

The facts

As a man who’s seen death as a meth user – and has lived to tell about it – Parnell gave three suggestions to the audience:

• Don’t use.
• If you use, get off it.
• Help law enforcement in finding users.

Parnell also said he hoped that cold medicines used in meth – such as Sudafed – would be put behind counters and sold. It wouldn’t alleviate the problem, but it would make getting meth supplies more difficult.

He also urged people to take care in approaching meth users. A “tweaker,” or a heavy meth user who has not slept in days, is most likely irritable and irrational.

Parnell said law enforcement should approach slowly, lower their tone of voice, keep hands visible and keep the tweaker talking. Silence can let his paranoid thoughts and delusions take over, which is dangerous.

When questions were asked by audience members, Parnell urged family members to give meth users a chance and ‘love them into sobriety.”

Getting back to his new face – which will continue to change with further surgeries, Parnell stated, “In the beginning, I was embarrassed by how I looked. My wife would tell me to explain what happened.”

And so he began sharing his message.

“I don’t want to make you feel bad. It’s a message of hope… a message that you can recover,” he stated.
last edited: 5/18/05 1:24:37 PM”

“Jeez, I have not even mixed my first batch yet and lizs is trying to reform me already ...”

“huh....I left a coleman canister inn the sierras once....”

“Becoming an addict

Parnell, 38, of Martin, Tennessee, opened his talk by calling meth “one of the worst drugs ever… one of the most


HOLY #&%!$!!! Thats my old home town, where I grew up! He didn't live there when I was a kid though.”

“Is meth what they used to call 'crank?"”

“yeah, crank is one name for it. methamphetamine is the chemical/clinical name.

Haven't touched the stuff in over 10 years and yeah, I'm sure I'd have died a horrible death long ago if I hadn't stopped.”

“I've heard his presentation in person. He does an effective job of skeering the bejeezus out of you.

We have meth here. Maybe not quite as bad as east TN -- but we have it bad over here on the west side. It's pretty much an epidemic. There's not hardly a week that goes by that someone's barn burns down, or someone dies, or another meth lab gets discovered.

It's sad -- no doubt.”