Father changes path for addicted daughter

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  • Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:56am

By Janice Podsada

For the Enterprise

Ross Wigney’s life changed forever when he learned his 19-year-old daughter was addicted to methamphetamine.

He gave up the good life in Hawaii and became a Washington State-certified drug lab clean-up contractor.

It was his way of fighting back against the highly addictive drug that snagged his daughter, who’s now 22 and in her third year of addiction.

Now, he is taking his fight public.

Wigney will present a series of Methamphetamine Awareness talks at Sno-Isle libraries in Lynnwood and Arlington in September for children and adults.

The discussions are especially timely with children returning to school, said Wigney, president of Ausclean Technologies, Inc, a drug lab clean-up company.

Meth labs and toxic waste have been discovered near schools, playgrounds and parks.

Wigney’s work brings him in contact with the hazardous chemicals and toxic residues dumped by meth “cooks” or left over from their labs.

Recognizing toxic drug waste can save a life, Wigney said. For example, kids will pick up a pop bottle with a short plastic tube sticking out of the neck and use it like a straw. If the bottle contains hydrochloride residues used to manufacture methamphetamine, one sip can prove deadly.

Wigney brings with him a display of the common but toxic household chemicals used in the drug’s manufacture, a list that includes acetone, rubbing alcohol, drain cleaner, engine starting fluid, lye, brake cleaner, red phosphorus, butane fuel and paint thinner.

Washington state currently is second in the nation for the number of meth drug busts: 1,800 in 2001.

Statewide, Snohomish County is vying for third place in the number of meth labs uncovered by police. The county’s rural character and an influx of meth producers from other counties have contributed to Snohomish County’s increased numbers, Wigney said.

“For every lab police find, it’s estimated 10 escape detection,” Wigney said.

As a clean-up contractor, Wigney has learned how to recognize a meth house by its sights, odors and booby traps, for example a dish of cyanide on the porch that can coalesce into a deadly cloud of gas when someone knocks at the door.

“I have nothing but sympathy for users, but zero tolerance for cooks,” he told a group of Snohomish County PUD workers this week.

Janice Podsada writes for the Herald in Everett.

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