Former Calhoun resident Douglas Bottenfield, 34, has been sentenced to jail for not less than two nor more than ten years for his part in the operation of "a rolling meth lab. The charges were brought in Roane County.
The Roane County Sheriff's department stopped a vehicle in July, 2005 near the Roane-Calhoun line in which Bottenfield was a passenger.
The stop followed a tip from Wood county that the occupants of the vehicle had been purchasing ingredients for making meth.
The arrest of three suspects led to a camping trailer at Cremo, Calhoun County, where authorities contend meth was being cooked.
See ... Â Three Arrested For Meth Lab
Bottenfield told Spencer Newspapers he felt a load had been lifted from him when he was arrested.
"There was a lot of worry and stress about getting caught," he said. "After I was arrested I didn't have to worry about it anymore. In a sense I was relieved."
Bottenfield said
"I grew up in a dirt hollow" and started using pot at age 15, later progressing to cocaine, crank and freebasing, saying "I never liked alcohol."
"I wanted the intense buzz â the speed buzz," he told Spencer Newspapers.
He lived in the Arnoldsburg area and graduated from Calhoun County schools, although the last year of high school he commuted from the home his family moved to in Roane County.
Bottenfield said he has cooked meth everywhere, in outbuildings and homes, in the woods and even in town, sometimes in Calhoun.
Only a handful of meth arrests have been made in Calhoun, although regional counties have filed hundreds of cases.
"People begged me for it," he said. "You can trade meth for anything."
Since his arrest, Bottenfield developed a PowerPoint presentation he has been trying to give to area groups about its hazards.
"People need to be aware of the signs of meth production and meth habits if they really want to stop the problem," he said. "Knowledge only helps, it never hurts."
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