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.
I guess some of us who have had problems with daughters that age really haven't seen the worst...
So, the achilles heel of the Blue Statesis methamphetimine?
Surely this is a 'red state' problem.
Sick.
Good for the Dad to ban her.
I am not pro tough love right off the bat when a loved one makes poor choices but in the case off "tweekers"
yes BANNED untill clean for two years.
They will rob family blind and they take anything from garage tools to silverware.
Users are IMO souless humans.
---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.---
We used to take it orally, rolled up in a piece of bread to keep it from burning a blister in our mouths. People that shot it up didn't live very long. This was in the sixties. Some got killed in the war, but a lot more got killed doing drugs.
You type like you're on drugs.
It's the most drastic thing I have ever seen.
The sad part is if you knew the family you'd realize it can happen to anyone. A normal, middle class family. Mom Dad 2 daughters. He has his own business and while not rich does well enough. Nothing in her past raised a flag.
I still can't get my head around it. I went over to cheer my friend up after her back surgery and listened to about two hours of this. Tragic.
They can't let their daughter in their house because she will steal anything she can. She's wacked out 5 days a week and then sleeps 2 days straight. She's now about 90 lbs. and looks like hell. She used to be cute as a button...
With her age, they can't actually do anything, but dad was tempted to call the cops in and get her and felon boyfriend busted. That's how bad it's got in 1 year.
It's so bad They'd rather see their youngest daughter in jail than cranked out and stripping for more drug money.......
But they haven't gone that route...I thank God I'm not in those shoes.
LOL! Put a little paranoi in the post you were refering too and I would almost bet the guy was a tweek.
It is getting to be the drug of choice in Washington State. The law is always busting labs. However, I am afraid that new ones replace busted ones almost immediately. The law says they are beating them but I seriously have my doubts.
Maybe it's just a Libertarian, or would that be the same thing. :-)
probably true.
follow the wod money to find out what the truth really is.
in fact, 'follow the money' is something we should do in just about every aspect of life, law and politics, tis the way to get at the truth, and separate the propaganda from reality.
the wod industry is super big $$$$$.
and they get to wear all those black bullet proof clothes and act like soldiers, without even leaving our shores.
Prayers for your friends as well...
My bf's ex wife is a meth addict. It ruined his life, and the lives of his children. She has custody, isn't that special...
That may be the only way to see her live as opposed to killing herself before everyone's eyes.
that's was her dad's reasoning as well...
what a heck of a choice
mom of course still has hope...but her dad is beyond the limit i think. it'll be years if they can ever get their lives repaired..but that's assuming she lives through this.
---I don't know which is worse, the level of ignorance I'm seeing on this thread from the "Speed Kills" folks, or the fact that you are all buying this WOD propaganda BS hook, line, and sinker. Ask some of our combat pilots or Rangers about the meth they're ISSUED. But that's OK, since they are administered their doses by a doctor, right? Hypocrisy - whether left or right politically - still sucks. ---
One high school friend of mine, a big football player that all the girls swooned over, got too fond of speed. He started hanging out alone. His skin turned grey and he turned up dead. He was 19 I think and he'd been shooting the stuff. The rest of us didn't shoot and eventually moved on.
Another guy I knew was executed by his two best friends over a drug deal involving speed. He was 20 or 21.
Reds got some, speed others, more to coke, and alcohol took a lot more.
And the people who make this crap are always the lowest form of drug scum. These aren't hippies growing pot, or yuppies snorting coke, or even slum-bums smoking crack, they are always near-death nothing-to-lose trailer trash of the lowest order, for whom life in prison would be a huge step up. I'm not sure what could be done about this, as just throwing them in jail is like sending them on a free resort vacation. Beds, food, TV, showers, it's a lot better than their outside lives.
I think we should send users to Mexico to help their economy!
God, you're stupid. Do you think the shit made out of cold pills and batteries is the same speed given occasionally to soldiers in combat?
BTT!!!!!!
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