Pubdate: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 Source: Pipestone County Star (MN) Contact: 2002 Pipestone County Star. Website: http://www.pipestonestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2679 Author: Mark Fode Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) EXPERTS: COMMUNITIES MUST MOVE AGAINST METH LABS It's scary enough that labs being set up secretly and illegally to produce methamphetamine, or "meth" are exploding in number. It's doubly scary to know these labs could also EXPLODE, literally. If the toll in human despair and suffering from drug sale and use wasn't enough, there are plenty of reasons for rural Minnesota residents, law enforcement and medical personnel to be concerned about their safety as they respond to these emergency situations. You can call it second-hand danger if you will, but the fact is that, if you suspect something like meth manufacture is happening in your neighborhood, you're in danger too. And officers or medics could face significant health risks too. Much of a two-hour meth lab forum Tuesday afternoon dealt with these dangers. The facts were presented by possibly the state's top expert on meth labs, Deborah Durkin, a health studies coordinator -- and self-described fanatic -- at the Minnesota Department of Health. During her presentation, Durkin called for community awareness and reporting as the greatest deterrent to the drug menace, and pointed out that many of the victims of meth labs are children who happen to live in the home where meth is being produced. In a perfect world -- and Durkin is hopeful that the day is coming -- Congress or state governments would act to protect children and other first responders who come to deal with the situation when a meth lab is uncovered. At the present time, children are among the hidden victims, facing dangers as serious as the drug "cookers" and users themselves. Children living in these conditions have been found to be malnourished, living in unsanitary conditions, injured without proper medical care, breathing in toxic chemicals and in close proximity to weapons, needles, flames, drugs and dangerous wiring in what is often rental housing. Durkin said society must act to rid their communities of meth labs if only to protect children from this form of abuse, which even includes mixing "meth goo" in the kitchen and refrigerator with food items. Unsuspecting children may pick up a soda container, for example, and drink the fluid inside, which may be a toxic chemical. The long-term effect of meth exposure is frightening. Their bodies can be affected in the development stage, their nervous system dangerously impacted. In the case of small children in the act of crawling, they may get hazardous materials on their fingers and into their mouths. Aside from poisoning, they are living in a "chaotic" environment where parenting skills are nil. While most labs don't have children involved, the ones that do often feature sexual assault, physical abuse, heavy metal contamination, meth poisoning from being there and later, problems like drug use and truancy. Babies born to meth users exhibit almost instant problems. The effects on children were among the most sobering on a list of ominous facts surrounding meth labs. Pipestone County is no stranger to this phenomena; one lab was found right in the city earlier this year, and in Jasper, a lab was uncovered two years ago. Two months after a meth lab was busted in nearby Sherman, another sprung up again, with one person charged in both incidents. Durkin became passionate about meth labs when her own neighbor became hooked on the drug, a tragedy that ruined what had been a fine family. She noted that she got involved in 1999 at a time when such home-made labs were rare. Little was known about them. A year later, Durkin remembers, "my phone started ringing, and the meth lab program was born." Minnesota officials hit the ground running and have actively battled the problem, right down to having Durkin travel the state to present her information to anyone who will listen, but primarily to agency staff members and others who will respond. Her point is simple: the increases in clandestine drug lab activity present a great threat in many ways for residents of mostly rural communities. Durkin's agency at this time has no state mandate and no funds, but is trying to educate the public that money is needed for materials and training. The one thing that can't be done, she says, is for a community to put its head in the sand. "The best way," she says, "to get rid of the problem is to sing it from the rooftops. You have to let people know. You have to do something." That particularly applies to residents, who must let law enforcment know when something is unusual in their neighborhood. They can do this by observing a few symptoms of trouble: Odors, like solvent or ether, or urine/ammonia. The landlord or others are denied access to the house. Windows are blacked out or vented. When occupants go outside to smoke. Retailers can help by noticing when people purchase with cash, and when ingredients like Sudafed in large quantities are purchased. When there is unusual traffic and activities, and when occupants have expensive vehicles. Once such a suspected lab has been suspected, law enforcement and other emergency teams must spring into action, ensuring that they are protected from what could be a dangerous situation inside the home. Not only will they run into a house that is often unfit for human habitation, but they will run into dangerous substances in unmarked jugs which can harm responders if they so much as smell them. Meth: cheap but addictive ... Durkin said methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive drug that compares to cocaine only in that they both deliver effective "highs." But meth, which is much less expense, and which can be made with common household chemicals, holds the high longer and more powerfully. Durkin said the drug has been around for about 100 years, but became a public problem for the first time with the Vietnam War in the 1960s. It wasn't long that more "professional" labs set up to produce meth were replaced by the mobile labs, where cooks could produce the same drug cheaper, and make money at the same time. Eventually, the troubling meth craze spread from Mexico to California and across the Midwest. Problems in Missouri and Montana are much worse than in Minnesota, and officials want to ensure that they react now, rather than later. "They're in terrible shape," she said of those states. "The governor of Missouri said recently that the worst problem they've ever had, greater than the farm economy, and schools, is meth." Despite the increase in meth labs, 80% of the nation's meth still comes up from southern states. Minnesota will have about 400 labs this year -- far behind the thousands in Missouri -- but still ahead of last year's numbers. Durkin said not all meth labs uncovered are being recorded. A recent fire, she said, which killed two young children in another part of the state was not "officially" listed as a meth-related fire, but Durkin said ingredients for meth use were present in the home and contributed to the trailer fire that killed the girls. While rental homes -- which in many cases are ruined -- are most often the site of the meth labs, they've been found in fish houses, motels, moving cars and mobile homes. Durkin says, however, that rental houses are most often used, contributing to another problem: loss of affordable housing. And, she said, 15% to 20% of the meth labs are discovered when they explode, literally, or catch fire. As emergency crews are dispatched to deal with the emergency, they often become ill from inhaling chemical fumes. In some cases, public servants have been disabled in the process. Jailers have become ill as they process meth lab defendants, and ambulance EMTs have suffered the effects, responding to a problem created by mixing ingredients in a recipe readily available on the Internet. While those trying to help are endangered and injured coming to the rescue, other "cooks" are swapping secrets and tips in Internet chat rooms. Why are meth labs popping up in rural Minnesota? Because, Durkin says, the operation -- and smell -- is easier to hide. Most commonly using meth are students in high school or college, and white, blue-collar people in their 20s and 30s, although some said abusers are becoming younger. For a time, meth use wasn't identified as a culprit when teen-age girls used it for weight control. Most use it with alcohol, which seems to "mellow out" the drug's reaction. Durkin said as meth labs arrive, so does an increase in crime, including drug-related homicide. And that doesn't cover the danger meth users and "cookers" are doing to themselves. The list of medical problems, physical and psychological, is lengthy, and includes, at the bottom, death. But prior to that, users and cooks are addicted to the point that their behavior is severely impaired; long-term damage is similar to that of a stroke, Parkinson's or Alzheimers. What is perhaps most scary is that those most likely to use meth are eighth-graders from rural America. "It's very scary," Durkin said. "Because this drug is so easy to get and it's undetectable. Young people are popping up making and using this drug. It's exciting, it's dangerous, it's cool, they think." Most of the cooks are providing meth for themselves and one to five people, Durkin said, but they can make up to 10 times more by selling it. Durkin said again, "locals must come together, sit down and figure out what to do. No one wants to be there until it's in our face. We didn't want to deal with it. Now we have to."