Harmon Duncan received the association’s Meth Man Award for his work in fighting methamphetamine from all fronts, from raiding illicit meth labs to tracking the illegal purchase of cold medicine in pharmacies to obtain psuedoephedrine, the raw material used to make meth.
Carter County has become known by lawmen across the state for the number of methamphetamine arrests and meth lab raids over the past several years.
“For three of the past five years, Carter County has led the state in labs, arrests and criminal charges filed,” Duncan said. In the other years, the Carter County placed in the top three counties in the state.’’
While there have been a lot of meth arrests in Carter County, Duncan said ’’it is important to note this in no way means that Carter County is the hotbed for meth in Tennessee. It simply means that our enforcement is proactive — we look for these labs using investigative methods that we have developed and with the full support of our department’s administration to provide the resources and resolve necessary to track down these offenders.“ He said the crime category in which Carter County frequently leads the state ”meth labs seized“ is an indicator of enforcement, not necessarily a reflection of how many labs are in the county.
The Meth Man Award certainly is a testament to Duncan’s work ethic, but his energy and drive can be seen in other ways. For one thing, he joined the sheriff’s department because he was bored with his retired lifestyle. He had retired after a career at General Motors.
Sheriff Dexter Lunceford said of Duncan ”he is very devoted … he does an exceptional job.“ Lunceford said that was true of the department’s investigators who work with Duncan to make so many arrests and lab busts.
But the numbers in Carter County have declined in the past few years and Duncan said it is part of a statewide trend.
”Due in large part to proactive enforcement, clandestine meth labs are down in Tennessee in 2015,“ Duncan said. ’’From over 2,000 labs (busted) a year in 2011-2013, 2014 recorded a substantial drop and thus far in 2015 there has been slightly over 500 labs discovered.“
Unfortunately, some of the decline in meth labs seized is the result of a switch to other drugs, Duncan said. ”The inclusion of crystal meth into Tennessee from Mexico has sustained the availability of meth in East Tennessee … and, of course pain pills fill the void, as does heroin, which is making a substantial comeback.“
Duncan said Tennessee has replaced Florida as the ’’go to state’’ to obtain controlled narcotics by prescription. He said overdose deaths from legal and illegal drugs now exceed deaths from automobile accidents in Tennessee. He said suboxone clinics are becoming prevalent in the area. Duncan said ”drug dealers are using the easy availability and lax requirements of these clinics to acquire controlled substances for resale and doing so in plain sight of local law enforcement, who are often restricted by state and federal law.’’