Pubdate: Sun, 12 Mar 2000
Source: Ann Arbor News (MI)
Copyright: 2000 Michigan Live Inc.
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Author: Art Aisner, News Staff Reporter

METH, GHB POPULARITY CONCERNS AREA POLICE
Ypsilanti Officer Hopes Drug Use Doesn't Reach 
Levels Of Crack Use In The 1980s

The battle against crack cocaine has left lasting impressions on
Ypsilanti Police Officer Rick Greer.

There were the two master's degree recipients who turned to
prostitution once they traded in all their other worldly possessions
to feed their addictions.

There's the elementary school child who grew up hating police because
they put his parents in jail for cooking up crack cocaine in their
squalid home where food and furniture were scarce. He eventually ended
up in jail himself.

Then there are the countless citizens, many of them law abiding
people, who live in daily fear of the violence associated with the
lifestyles of their drug-dealing neighbors.

Greer can't stand the thought of more painful memories with two
emerging drugs, methamphetamine and GHB.

"Both are getting here but don't have a foothold in the area, and I
hope they don't because it will be like crack in the mid-80s all over
again," said the former Livingston and Washtenaw Counties Narcotics
Enforcement Team member who now patrols Ypsilanti's streets at night.

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine is an extremely addictive drug that attacks the
central nervous system. Heavy use of the stimulant can cause serious
health conditions such as heart and brain damage, psychotic behavior,
aggression and memory loss.

The drug is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that
easily dissolves in water or alcohol. It can be smoked, snorted,
ingested or injected. That all increases the potential for contracting
the HIV virus or hepatitis. On the street it is commonly known as
speed, meth or chalk. In its smoked form, it is called ice, crystal,
crank and glass.

Meth is slowly creeping back into the drug underworld after originally
being considered a biker drug because many motorcycle gangs on the
West Coast used it.

Nationwide use of meth by high school students more than doubled from
1990 to 1998, according to the National Institute on drug abuse. The
1999 Monitoring the Future survey of 12th graders by the University of
Michigan's Institute for Social Research showed meth use is steadily
rising though its popularity still trails alcohol, inhalants and marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that nationwide arrests
for setting up a manufacturing lab for the drug tripled in 1998. That
figure was consistent in Michigan, where authorities discovered six
clandestine meth producing labs, including two in Jackson County, in
1998.

"Crack is still the No. 1 problem but I believe (meth) is out there
locally and we just haven't come across it yet," said Capt. Matt
Harshberger of the Ypsilanti police. "If it's in Jackson, it's here,
too."

What worries law enforcement is the drug's appeal to substance
abusers. Its euphoric high lasts longer than that of cocaine and its
users tend to exhibit violent behavior. Ninety-four percent of
first-time meth users become addicts, according to statistics.

The drug is also readily available and cheaper. A gram of it would
cost around $50 to $150 while a gram of crack cocaine could run up to
$500, Greer said.

Methamphetamine also is easier to produce than crack if you have the
knowhow and the equipment. Recipes are available on the Internet and
potentially-lethal components needed for production, such as drain
cleaners, paint thinner, freon, and camp-stove fuel can be found in
most supermarkets, said Bradley Choape, a forensic scientist with the
Michigan State Police Crime Lab in Lansing.

Production requires little sophisticated equipment or knowledge of
chemistry, Choape said. The smallest labs can fit into a gym bag and
larger ones are often found in homes, apartments, mobile homes, hotel
rooms and isolated cabins.

Local authorities said they haven't found much methamphetamine out on
the street but officers also lack the training to identify
methampetamine use on its own because it has not re-emerged on the
drug scene until recently, Harshberger said.

"There's a need for more training and we're going to address that. We
haven't been able to identify it yet, but when it's not something you
know about or come across regularly, the officers have a tendency not
to look for it," he said.

Unpleasantly Surprised

LAWNET officers thought they knew what they were looking for when they
raided a suspected marijuana growing operation inside a building on
Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti last month. They seized more than 100
plants reportedly worth $160,000. But the discovery of chemicals
suspected to be precursors for GHB - also known as the date rape drug
- - may prove more valuable. Even if the dollar amounts don't equate.

"We were shocked to find it and really weren't sure what we had at
first," said LAWNET Detective Brian Johnson. "It was our first time
encountering it and it's so new to law enforcement across the board
that nobody knows how to deal with it effectively. But we're learning
now."

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate is a natural substance found in the body and can
be mixed with other compounds to produce a physiological "high." It
comes in both a liquid and powder form and is odorless and tasteless.
When ingested, GHB induces a relaxing effect on the body within 10 to
20 minutes. In high doses, it can cause unconciousness, seizures and
respiratory problems.

It recently grabbed headlines nationwide because of high-profile court
cases involving its use to incapacitate women who were raped and even
died under its influence.

The official death count related to GHB across the country is now 58,
with 40 additional cases still under review, according to the DEA. It
has been blamed for two deaths in Michigan, including a teen-ager in
Grosse Isle, and two more cases are under investigation.

In the 1980s, GHB was widely used by body builders to stimulate muscle
growth and was available in pharmacies and health food stores
everywhere. In 1990, the Federal Drug Administration banned
over-the-counter sales after scientists found a high potential for
abuse.

Michigan joined 13 other states by declaring GHB a controlled
substance last year and law enforcement quickly learned its reputation
as the new social drug for rave parties was all it was made out to
be.

"GHB use seemed to simply explode once the officers began to look for
it," said Dennis Lippert, a supervisor at the Michigan State Police
Crime Lab in Northville. "It seemed to proliferate after some
celebrity deaths associated with it, and I anticipate we'll be getting
more (samples for testing) as officers become more aware."

Lippert, who joined the Northville lab late last year, said he
investigated 26 separate cases of GHB while working in the state
police lab in Sterling Heights in 1999. In most of those cases, the
concoctions were comprised of household products, and the creators
found their instructions on the Internet.

Officials with the State Attorney General's office confirmed there are
at least 70 known Internet sites containing directions for making GHB.
Some sites even deliver the products.

Since GHB in its pure form is not toxic, the medical community waited
a long time before it saw GHB as a problem, said Dr. Michael Brooks,
director of the Saline-based Greenbrook Recovery Center, the substance
abuse arm of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.

Once people learned it was mixed with other drugs and used deceptively
for sexual purposes, many changed their opinions.

"All drugs can be dangerous, but it's how GHB is used that's really
frightening," Brooks said. "Anyone can slip it in your drinks and you
wouldn't even notice it, except when it may be too late."

Brooks found that users of both meth and GHB traditionally suffered
similar addiction cycles and withdrawals as crack addicts. Both drugs
lead to binging. Without it, users are driven into severe depression,
intense paranoia and aggression, he said.

One patient he treated for GHB addiction last year could not go a day
without it unless they were in a restrictive environment. The key, he
says, is to attack the use pattern and educate people about the ills
of addiction before a behavioral pattern becomes a problem.

"There's not a rubber stamp treatment because drugs affect everyone
differently," he said. "It's up to (counselors) to design a plan that
meets the patient's needs and convince them to follow through on it.
Much of it falls onto their willingness to participate."
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