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Tennessee police warn of ‘meth gators,’ urge drug users not to flush their stashes

Published Jul 15th, 2019 1:00PM EDT
meth gators
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If you’re a meth user in Loretto, Tennessee, local law enforcement would very much like for you to stop, and when you do, please don’t ditch your stash by flushing it down the toilet. That’s the message the Loretto Police Department is sending out in a Facebook post describing a recent drug bust.

While serving a search warrant in the city, officers caught a suspect frantically flushing as much potential evidence as he could. He couldn’t flush it all, however, and not only was he busted with a horde of drug paraphernalia, he also had 12 grams of meth and 24 fluid ounces of liquid meth. It’s unclear how much he managed to ditch down the drain, but the department used the incident as an opportunity to remind drug users that flushing their stash can have a serious environmental impact.

In the tongue-in-cheek Facebook post, the department even mentions the potential for animals to become “hyped up” after unintentionally ingesting substances like meth. If the drugs reached the Tennessee River, they could even result in “meth-gators” in North Alabama, the post explains.

On a more or less serious note: Folks…please don’t flush your drugs m’kay. When you send something down the sewer pipe it ends up in our retention ponds for processing before it is sent down stream. Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek, but they are not really prepared for meth. Ducks, Geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They’ve had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help. So, if you need to dispose of your drugs just give us a call and we will make sure they are disposed of in the proper way.

The police department suggests dropping off certain drugs, like prescription pills, can be done at the local City Hall, or simply by contacting the department for assistance. No “meth-gators” have been spotted in Alabama thus far.