Pubdate: Sun, 02 Jan 2000
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2000 The Evansville Courier
Contact:  P. O. Box 268 Evansville, IN 47702-0268
Website: http://courier.evansville.net/
Author: The Associated Press

METH USE EXPECTED TO SKYROCKET IN INDIANA

Montgomery County Sheriff Dennis Rice didn't realize what he had on his 
hands when he first came across a clandestine methamphetamine lab. But 
within a year, county police had seized more than 20 labs. And authorities 
tracked down a man from Missouri, who they believe brought his recipe for 
producing meth to this west-central Indiana county.

Then police found someone who learned how to make meth from the man from 
Missouri. And someone that person had taught. And someone that person had told.

"I said right now it's just Montgomery County's problem, but it's going to 
be a state problem in a short period of time," Rice said.

He is more right than he ever feared.

After studying the drug's popularity in states such as Missouri, state 
police and drug experts are predicting an explosion of methamphetamine labs 
in Indiana over the next year, pushing what's been a growing problem into 
what they fear will be a full-scale epidemic.

The number of labs processed by the Indiana State Police forensics 
laboratory has doubled every year since 1994, except 1999, when they more 
than tripled to 127 labs.

"The drug is so highly addictive, and it's becoming such a popular drug," 
Rice said. "Everything people need to make it is right here at home."

First synthesized by a Japanese scientist in 1919, methamphetamine was used 
during the 1930s in various forms to treat schizophrenia, narcolepsy, 
Parkinson's disease and depression.

During World War II, Japanese and German military troops were given the 
drug to keep them alert, and in the 1950s some U.S. doctors prescribed 
forms of the drug to increase energy levels in patients.

During the 1960s, nonmedical use of the drug began to increase in the 
United States, and outlaw motorcycle gangs became a primary producer of 
meth, also known as crank, ice and glass.

Over the last decade, the drug has moved steadily eastward through 
Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, where state police seized their first 
clandestine methamphetamine lab in 1992.

After small increases through 1995, Missouri and federal authorities seized 
250 labs in 1996 and more than 900 last year. They expect to exceed the 
1998 level this year.

Indiana authorities are forecasting the same pattern here. In 1994, state 
police seized just three labs, and that number increased slightly from 1995 
to 1998, before taking off in 1999.

"There's no reason for it to slack off," said Eric Lawrence, director of 
the forensic analysis division of the Indiana State Police crime lab.

"What's the downside of it if you're someone who's into abusing drugs? It's 
going to continue to increase until you can control some of the chemicals. 
And how are you going to do that because they're over the counter stuff?"

What makes meth so difficult to stop is that almost every ingredient can be 
bought over the counter and is found in common goods like cold medicines 
and batteries.

"It's not cocaine that we're trying to stop at the border from South 
America. This is stuff that's made at home with American-made products 
bought at your local hardware store," said Mike Boeger, an investigator 
with the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

In Indiana, meth producers overwhelmingly favor the "Nazi method" for 
producing the drug. The relatively simple process involves almost all 
over-the-counter ingredients available in any drug store, a jar, a 
two-liter soda bottle, a tube and a coffee filter.

Producers extract ephedrine from cold medication, add sulfuric acid from 
drain cleaners, lithium from batteries, anhydrous ammonia -- which 
producers can be very efficient in producing the drug.

"This Nazi method is pretty idiot-proof," Lawrence said. "They throw this 
stuff together, and they're going to get some product.

"You can make a quarter of a pound in five hours. At $100 a gram, that's 
pretty good money."

The Indiana Legislature made its first move to address methamphetamine 
during the 1999 session, when it approved a bill making it a D felony for 
anyone to possess two or more meth ingredients with the intent to produce 
the drug.

Despite the 47-0 vote for the bill, Sen. Charles "Bud" Meeks, one of the 
sponsors, said some legislators and state agencies have been slow to 
realize the potential of meth because it's still concentrated mostly in 
rural areas and Southern Indiana.

"They're just not seeing the danger that this thing is on the horizon. It's 
the drug of the 21st century," said Meeks, R-Leo, a former Allen County 
Sheriff. "We cannot be passive on this thing. We have to be proactive and 
get stated on it."

In Missouri, authorities are battling the drug with a massive education 
campaign and stiffer penalties for meth users and producers.

Store chains, including Wal-Mart, have agreed to limit their sale of 
certain meth ingredients like cold medicine and tip off police when 
customers continually buy large amounts of those products.

Boeger said the Missouri Legislature passed an omnibus meth bill in 1998 
that stiffened several offenses associated with meth from misdemeanors to 
felonies, increased sentences, made manufacturing the drug a more serious 
crime and increased funding to train police in handling and investigating 
meth cases.

"If the state of Indiana doesn't start controlling chemicals like you do 
drugs, this thing of going home and making their own drugs is going to hit 
you next. Meth is just one of the drugs they're making at home now," Boeger 
said.

So far, the meth labs seized by police in Indiana are confined to an area 
south of Interstate 70 and west of I-65 in Southwestern Indiana, 
particularly along a corridor from Evansville to Bloomington, Lawrence said.

But state police have found their first labs in Angola and Elkhart, 
Lawrence said.

In Montgomery County, Rice said he hasn't seen any signs of the drug 
dropping off.

"I don't perceive this going away," Rice said. "The drug's become too 
popular. I think it's here to stay, so what started out being a rather new 
thing to us is becoming routine." 
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