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| Theresa Baxter June 2001 | Theresa Baxter 3 years, 5 months later |
Posted on 01/29/2005 10:32:26 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Imagine that, with $100 worth of supplies bought from neighborhood stores, dealers could easily cook up $1,000 worth of a drug so addictive that users quickly descend into a hell of violence, crime and neglect.
That frightening scenario is the reality of methamphetamine, a drug that is sweeping rural America, spawning crime, child abuse and toxic pollution and ripping apart communities.
"It is out of control. It is a huge problem all across the United States," said Mike Logsdon, unit chief of an intelligence arm of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that collects data on the problem.
The drug, also known as crank, crystal, speed and ice, can be snorted, injected, smoked or swallowed. Within minutes, the user experiences a rush of energy and sense of well-being that can last up to 12 hours. But when it wears off, it leaves a feeling of deep depression and paranoia which makes the user desperate for another dose.
The scourge has taken hold in the last five years, and rural areas are bearing the brunt of the problem. Experts say that is primarily because meth is easy and cheap to make. Ingredients include readily accessible rock salt, battery acid, anhydrous ammonia and cold medicines. Recipes can be downloaded from the Internet.
As well, wide-open spaces in the country and small towns offer plentiful places to hide the drug activity.
"It's the first drug in the history of the United States we can make, distribute, sell, take, all here in the Midwest," said Detective Jason Grellner, of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department in Missouri, who seized 120 meth labs last year.
"You can't grow a coca plantation or an opium plantation here to get your heroin or cocaine, and marijuana takes four or five months to grow a good plant. With methamphetamine you can go out and for a couple hundred dollars you can make your drugs that day," Grellner said.
SWIFT AND SERIOUS
The problem descended on rural America with shocking suddenness. Sheriff Randy Krukow of Clay County in western Iowa said that in 1999, he had detected not a single meth-producing laboratory. By 2001, his force had broken up 56 in a county with a population of only 18,000.
For the fiscal year ending September 2004, the Drug Enforcement Administration counted more than 16,800 methamphetamine-related seizures by law enforcement across the country, up from 15,300 in 2002.
"This is the most serious law enforcement problem we've ever faced in the history of our state because this substance is so addictive and so easy and cheap to make," said North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
"When we look at our prison population, 10 years ago nobody had even heard of it. Now 60 percent of our male inmates are users and we're building a brand new prison for female users," Stenehjem said.
Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal recently told a statewide conference on combating the drug: "It doesn't matter where we go in the state, methamphetamine is there. The whole issue is eating us alive."
According to the Drug Trends Analysis Unit, an office in the Department of Justice, the highest numbers of meth labs are found in California, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, all important farming states.
Clandestine labs were discovered in abandoned farms, in fields and ditches, vehicles, barns and even in 309 cases in hotel rooms. In one 2002 incident in North Dakota, an explosion set off a fire which destroyed the entire hotel.
In thousands of cases, people have been caught cooking the highly toxic chemicals in homes where children were present, breathing the poisonous fumes.
'SUPER LABS'
But these small mobile labs only scratch the surface of the problem. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 80 percent of the methamphetamine sold in the United States is produced in so-called 'super labs' in Mexico or California run by organized crime syndicates which cook up vast quantities.
"The wholesale abuse of the drug is serious enough. But when we factor is the toxic environmental effects from unregulated chemicals used in clandestine laboratories, we see that methamphetamine is taking a terrible toll. No community is immune," Joseph Rannazzisi, deputy chief of enforcement for the DEA told a congressional committee in November.
Each pound of methamphetamines produced yields another five to six pounds of toxic waste. Cleanup after labs are discovered can cost thousands of dollars apiece and can endanger the lives of police officers who lack the expertise required.
In an effort to stem meth production, at least 20 states are now trying to limit the amount of cold medicines and decongestants they will sell to individuals to two packets at any one time. Some states are requiring stores to take them off the shelves entirely.
In future, shoppers will have to ask a pharmacist for them directly. The measures are being vigorously opposed by the pharmaceutical industry.
Faced with a growing number of addicts, few rural communities have treatment facilities or funds to create them.
The National Institute of Drug Abuse is funding clinical trials in five U.S. cities in California, Hawaii and Missouri, hoping to find chemical and behavioral therapies to free users from their addictions.
Meth's economic costs can be significant as well. A study issued last month by the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas studied methamphetamine use in Benton County, the home of retailing giant Walmart Stores Inc. The survey found that lost productivity and absenteeism because of methamphetamine addiction was costing employers there more than $21 million a year.
Yeah, I've seen some nasty "before and after" photos. ....posted right here on FR, if I recall.
It's a SICKENING drug.
It is indeed, cyborg. The worst I've ever seen, by a longshot. And I've never understood the attraction of speed anyway. .....racing pulse, paranoia, elevated blood pressure. .....not exactly my idea of a good time.
Sounds pretty toxic to me. Who puts these formulas together? It's no wonder it kills people.
I live in Chelsea. Nearly every payphone booth ad is a dire warning about "Crystal". Gay men go to huge "circuit parties" where they have Viagra in dishes like candies and Crystal Meth passed around for all-night, unprotected ("bareback") sex orgies. When the bill for all this comes due, it won't be pretty.
BTTT
Apparently this has become a very big problem in Hawaii too...
When the bill comes due, you and I will be expected to pay it.
That burns me up, too!
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| Theresa Baxter June 2001 | Theresa Baxter 3 years, 5 months later |
Be careful where you're going with this criticism of open borders.
After all, you would not want to discriminate against the upstanding community of Undocumented Americans.
Lets all face some facts here. Meth can be produced by a 8th grade high school drop-out. Meth can be produced in a shed, a house, a basement, a barn, etc. $5k worth of meth on the market can be produced in one evening, with household items you can buy in your local town. Once hooked on meth, you rarely come off...and you will eventually drop dead...very cheaply. Meth users rarely show any common sense and act upon emotions.
In the state of Alabama...if you go out ask local cops...they will tell you that they can't fight this plague...the web doubles every two years. And everytime you bust a lab...its a toxic waste item which costs the county well over $20k to clean up. County authorities don't even want the labs to be identified...it takes tons of money out of public roads and schools. If ever there were a death penelty for production...this would be the one. But the legal costs to the state would greatly outweigh the toxic waste cleanup.
The people who take this are the same people who will sue their local restaurant if they put salt in the pepper shaker.
Speaking from experience B.C. (Before Christ), I can't begin to describe how good a speed rush makes you feel. I understand totally why it is such a popular drug. And, having seen it destroy a high school friend, understand totally how devastating are its effects.
Hey, that's why there's a US Treasury.
Expect Dubya Bush to give a $ billion to NYC for "AIDS Relief."
I wonder what her insides looked like... it couldn't be much prettier...
If anyone here is thinking about doing meth, I'll spot you the cash to go with cocaine or heroin instead.
A recent thread here on FR had a series of before-and-after pictures of meth users. I've seen the decline of crack and/or meth users firsthand, and it's frightening, but seeing the difference side by side is still a stunning experience.
If we don't significantly stiffen the punishment, the escalation will continue. Someone suggested the death penalty, but you need not do that. You want to make huge reductions in not only these crimes, but all of them, overnight? PUT PRISONERS BACK TO WORK. For many of them now, prison is an acceptable way of life to them. Turn it back into a place people want to avoid at all costs, and crime will plummet overnight. It's rarely an issue, but I happen to believe we're in desperate need of prison reform in this country.
MM
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