Pubdate: Sun, 24 Aug 2014
Source: La Crosse Tribune (WI)
Copyright: 2014 The La Crosse Tribune
Contact: http://www.lacrossetribune.com/app/forms/sendletter/
Website: http://www.lacrossetribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/229
Author: Anne Jungen

METH USE CLIMBS AS PRICE OF HEROIN SKYROCKETS

Methamphetamine use is climbing as desperate heroin addicts search for
a cheaper way to get high and avoid a fatal overdose.

"Meth has never gone away," said Tom Johnson, who heads a regional
drug task force. "We just never gave it enough credit."

Local law enforcement saw meth use rise again in mid-2013 when heroin
prices ballooned. Heroin can fetch up to $280 per gram; meth sells for
as little as $50 to $100 for the same quantity, said La Crosse police
Sgt. Andrew Dittman, who heads the department's narcotics unit.

"Since May, the market is almost over saturated," he
said.

La Crosse police in the first half of this year arrested 113 people
for possessing, selling or making meth, up from just 41 arrests during
the same period in 2013.

Local prosecutions also are up, with 83 meth users and dealers charged
through June 30, an increase from 38 cases filed in the first half of
last year, according to the La Crosse County District Attorney's office.

Investigators in La Crosse spend about one-third of their time working
meth cases, but investigating dealers can tie up the department's
narcotics unit for a week or more, Dittman said. And an arrest can
make room for another large-scale dealer who can make tens of
thousands of dollars in days.

The investigator pointed to the case against Taylor Baker, a La Crosse
woman arrested in July with 60 grams of meth that could have yielded
her $6,000 or more.

La Crosse police attribute the increase in meth cases this year to a
nearly fully staffed department with officers better trained to find
the drug. The agency added a third narcotics detection dog late last
year and four community policing officers dedicated to specific
neighborhoods earlier this year.

Johnson believes efforts to raise awareness about the deadly effects
of heroin frightened some users not into sobriety but into using meth,
which is less likely to lead to a fatal overdose.

"The reality of dying is hitting home," Johnson said.

Meth didn't disappear when heroin re-emerged in 2010 and escalated to
what authorities described as an epidemic.

County officials considered including but ultimately excluded meth
when the Heroin and Illicit Drug Task Force formed in October to study
the heroin crisis, said Keith Lease, the committee's
co-chairman.

Recovering addicts visiting AMS of Wisconsin report a rise in meth
use, said Pat Ruda, the agency's executive director. The Onalaska
facility specializes in treating opiate and heroin addicts.

"I hear a lot more discussion about meth and access to it and hear it
used in combination with heroin, maybe for the incredible high," she
said.

The drugs give users a different kind of high - heroin a euphoric
feeling and meth a rush - but both are highly addictive and have the
potential to kill.

"They're both extremely difficult to get clean from because of how
powerful they are in your brain," said Lease, who heads the Coulee
Council on Addictions.

Heroin addicts can turn to prescription drugs to alleviate the painful
withdrawal symptoms and curb cravings, but meth addicts have to rely
on will power and counseling, Lease said.

Heroin users will see their vweins collapse, while meth users will
claw at their developing scabs, lose teeth and watch their cheeks and
eyes sink.

"Physical appearance-wise, meth is probably one of the worst drugs,"
Lease said. "It tears you apart."

Cyndi, a La Crosse recovering addict who asked to be identified only
by her first name, tried meth for the first time at age 24 in 2009.

"I figured I would try it just once and that would be it," she
said.

Within four months, she had quit her nursing job to use and sell meth,
making up to $1,000 a day. She lost her home and her daughter.

Cyndi was jailed five times in five months before she entered the
county's Drug Treatment Court in October 2010. She admits using drugs
while enrolled until "something switched."

"I was honest with everyone else and I was honest with myself," she
said.

Cyndi celebrated four years of sobriety on Aug. 13. She rebuilt her
relationship with her daughter, plans to wed another drug court grad,
landed a full-time job and plans to study social work at Western
Technical College this semester.

She hasn't forgotten the drug world she fell into, and she called meth
use among local high school students "devastating."

"Meth will rob a person of who they are," she said.

Local investigators don't call local meth use an epidemic, but they
believe users right now have access to crystal meth, a more expensive
and higher quality form of the drug produced in a Mexican lab and
trafficked to La Crosse from the Twin Cities.

When that supply is depleted, investigators expect dealers and users
will respond by increasing how often they make their own meth in a
plastic bottle with household products and cold tablets, Dittman said.

Investigators saw the "one pot" or "shake and bake" method of
manufacturing meth grow in recent years because it reduced how often
users had to buy the drug, said Johnson, coordinator of the West
Central Metropolitan Enforcement Group.

The multi-jurisdictional task force, known as MEG, allows officers
from 17 agencies across La Crosse and its surrounding counties to
share intelligence.

The region's rural areas remain ripe for other methods of meth
production, Johnson said. Vernon County authorities raided two rural
Hillsboro properties on July 31 and uncovered meth labs that used red
phosphorus to create the drug. The phosphorus mixed with iodine can
create a dangerous gas and explode.

"It can be fatal if inhaled," Johnson said.

Investigators urge the public to report suspicious activity to reduce
meth production and to call if they see someone purchasing a
combination of ingredients used to make the drug, including camping
fuel, drain cleaner and ice packs.

Police continue to focus on dealers while educating the community
about what it can do to help reduce use.

"We have to focus on prevention," Lease said. "Otherwise, there will
always be a drug of the moment."  
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D