Meth WILL make you stupid

SALINE CO.— Authorities routinely say that methamphetamine will eat your brain.

And apparently wherever the brain cells go, so goes anything resembling common sense.

As a case study this month: known convicted meth cook Tony Michael Dambrell, 43, of the 600 block of North Webster St., Harrisburg.

Harrisburg authorities were called to the city Walmart February 6 at 12:18 a.m. on a report of an intoxicated male looking for some red tape to cover his taillight.

The caller said he told them he had been in an accident and was injured.

As HPD officer Kenny Shires was arriving, he spotted the maroon Ford passenger car the caller described the man driving off in, pulling into Citgo.

When Shires observed the man, he appeared to be under the influence of methamphetamine.

That turned out to be a very good call on Shires’ part.

That smell

Shires also detected the smell of meth coming from the vehicle Dambrell was driving.

That’s about the time Shires spotted clear tubing sitting on the center console.

Shires asked Dambrell if there were anything illegal in the car and he sad no.

And when Shires asked if he could search the car, Dambrell said he’d rather he not.

And after what was found, he had good reason for not wanting the law to crawl through his car.

When Shires walked around to the passenger side of the car, he found a plastic soda bottle with a moist white crystal substance inside on the floorboard.

Needless to say, Dambrell was taken into custody at that point and a complete inventory of the car produced an unopened bottle of drain cleaner, a 12 ounce bottle containing a crystal substance in liquid, one small Mason jar containing a clear liquid with residue inside and one blue glass smoking pipe with residue on it.

A methamphetamine response team later confirmed that the white crystal was salt, the clear liquid contained ether/ammonia and the residue in the liquid was methamphetamine.

Dambrell was booked into the county jail on charges of Unlawful Methamphetamine Manufacture 15-100 grams, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine 15-100 grams and Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Material.

Veteran of drug wars

Dambrell might be considered by some to be a veteran of the drug war.

However, he appears to be attached to the losing side.

He began spending long hours with hairy sweaty men in cages after he was convicted July 2, 2000 on one count of Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Materials and sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).

In 2007 he was arrested and charged with one count each of Unlawful Possession of Anhydrous Ammonia with Intent to Manufacture Methamphetamine, Unlawful Delivery of Methamphetamine, Possession of Anhydrous Ammonia in an Unauthorized Container and Unlawful Possession of Meth.

After pleading to the possession of meth charge in return for the remaining charges being dismissed, he was sentenced to 10 years IDOC.

Back on the street and plying his trade in September of 2013, Dambrell was convicted of Unlawful Possession of Meth Precursors with Intent to Manufacture Methamphetamine for which he was sentenced to 30 months probation and ordered to pay $1,280 in fines and fees, of which he still owes $429.

By all accounts Dambrell is very likely headed back to living in a cage in IDOC.

Many believe the only thing worse than a young doper is an old doper who is not smart enough to avoid taking his own poison.

Cash bond has been set in the unemployed meth cook’s case at $2,000.