Pubdate: Sun, 07 Aug 2005
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Laura  Crimaldi
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

CRUDE HOME LABS CRANK UP CRYSTAL METH USE IN BAY STATE

Crystal meth, the highly addictive drug gripping the West Coast and patches 
of rural America, is steadily creeping into the Bay State, bringing with it 
crude labs, feverish sex parties and even fears of a supervirulent strain 
of HIV, law enforcement officials say.

"It's  coming this way," said State Police Lt. Dennis Brooks, who is 
assigned to  Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley's investigative 
unit. "We're  aggressively going after it, and we don't want it to take a 
foothold in this  region." This year  alone, Middlesex County authorities 
have uncovered three makeshift meth labs and  seen crystal meth busts spike 
from three in 2004 to 12 this year. After one  of those busts, the Lower 
Basin state police barracks in Cambridge were  sanitized, and two state 
troopers were sent for medical evaluations, when an  arrested man claimed 
to have a super-strain of HIV, Brooks said. The alarming  HIV strain was 
first identified in a heavy meth user in New York. Last week,  police shut 
down a dangerous meth lab in Lowell after finding iodine crystals, red 
phosphorous, drug residue and instructions on how to manufacture meth in 
a  third-floor attic bedroom.

Owen  O'Neill, 25, who allegedly ordered volatile chemicals on the Internet 
and stored  them in a refrigerator, was charged with making 
methamphetamines. Crystal meth  labs around the nation have been known to 
explode, causing terrible blazes and  inflicting horrific burns.

"This  stuff is volatile if it's mixed improperly or something goes wrong," 
said  Lowell Police Sgt. Detective Jim Trudel.

Across  Massachusetts, white, Asian and gay men ages 18 to 35 have turned 
to the drug,  once called the "poor man's cocaine," attending hotel parties 
advertised in  code on the Internet to get high on crystal meth shipments 
from New York City  and the Southwest, law enforcement officials said. 
Using  recipes found on the Internet, meth cooks buy nonprescription cold 
pills like  Sudafed for its active ingredient, pseudoephedrine, a chemical 
derivative of  amphetamine. The ingredient is combined with chemicals like 
iodine and anhydrous ammonia, then cooked over a high heat. When ingested, 
the drug unleashes extra  dopamine to the brain, which taps the pleasure 
receptors and gives users an  addictively euphoric high.

The battle  against meth - also known as "crank" and "tina" - has already 
hit  drugstores, with places like CVS and Walgreens putting cold medicines 
containing  pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters. State Sen. Harriette 
L. Chandler  (D-Worcester) is also sponsoring a bill that would put strict 
limits on how  common cold medicines are distributed.

"This  medication has been around a long time, and in those cities, towns 
and states  that it has left so much tragedy it's hard to get rid of," 
Chandler said. The drug's  popularity among the gay community has also 
sparked fears about a potential link  between meth and the spread of HIV - 
in part because meth is used to enhance sexual encounters.

Three men  have been found to be infected with a drug-resistant form of 
HIV, but the new  cases haven't rapidly progressed into AIDS like the 
initial case did. No such  cases have been detected in Massachusetts, said 
Kevin Cranston, director of the  Department of Public Health's HIV/AIDS Bureau.
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MAP posted-by: Beth