Utah Meth Cops Project: Open Letter from Attorney-General Mark Shurtleff

Utah leads the nation in reducing the number of dangerous methamphetamine labs over the last seven years but that success came at a heavy price. Many of the police officers, who voluntarily went into these toxic homes to make Utah safer, are suffering ill effects from the harmful chemicals they encountered in those labs. Having witnessed myself the heroic attitude of our police officers, I felt that we could not stand by as a community while those who are willing to put their lives on the line to protect us were becoming ill. I decided that something needed to be done.

In the fall of 2007, I helped launch the Utah Meth Cops Project, the first detoxification program of its kind to help first responders exposed to illicit drug labs. The Utah Meth Cops Project uses the Hubbard™ sauna detoxification method, the same protocol used by the Ground Zero Rescue Workers Detoxification Project. The New York project has been around since 2002 and has successfully helped around 1,000 Ground Zero workers. Very early in the delivery of the project, the physician and staff noticed that police officers who had been exposed to meth were suffering from a cluster of symptoms not seen to such a dramatic extent in "non-meth cops" and the civilian population. Those symptoms include frequent headaches, severe acid reflux and esophageal problems, joint pain, insomnia, depression and others.

I am very proud to announce that in July of 2009, the Utah Meth Cops Project celebrated its 57th completion. The success of this program has been no less than impressive. We have seen a significant reduction of symptoms and a remarkable improvement in overall health and well being. Many of the officers’ testimonials have been posted under the success section of this website. I hope that you will take a minute to read them. We still have a long list of officers who need help and we also have a list of firefighters who have been exposed to the same meth labs. They too need our help. Due to the financial circumstances of these brave officers and firefighters, made worse by ill health, we have committed to make this program available to them free of charge.