Meth Madness - Iowa School Bans Cookies 2/25/05
stopthedrugwar.org
The superintendent of Iowa's rural Mount Pleasant School District is set to recommend that the school board bar children from bringing homemade treats to share with other students at school events out of fear the cakes and cookies could contain methamphetamine, the Associated Press reported February 17. Superintendent John Roederer said the move had been under consideration for at least a year, even though food contamination by meth was not a problem in the district.
Roederer was heeding a warning from Iowa Department of Human Services specialist Greg Lorber, who raised the alarm in an AP interview. "If the parents are brewing up the meth in the microwave or storing it in the refrigerator or stove, that toxin could be transferred to the food," Lorber said. "Kitchen utensils can do double duty for meth cooks, as well. As if anyone doubted it, exposure to methamphetamine is dangerous," Lorber said. "They (meth manufacturers' children) show up at school with flu-like symptoms -- headaches, stomach pains -- and they really have acute methamphetamine poisoning," he said.
Brownies and fudge from home are out, said Roeder, but prepackaged snacks are okay. Fruits such as apples, oranges, bananas and grapes make the cut, as do string cheese, cereal in the box, and granola bars. The ban did not apply to snacks for the French and Spanish classes, he said, without any further explanation.
Roederer cited warnings from Lorber and other meth and health experts in seeking the ban. Other districts had already enacted a ban, he said. He also sought to reassure anxious parents. "We don't want to scare a lot of people or make people think we have high incidences of (meth residue in the schools) in Mount Pleasant," Roederer said. "We don't."
qctimes.com]
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