Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2001
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
Copyright: 2001 The Des Moines Register.
Contact:  http://www.dmregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123
Author: Lee Rood
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

USE OF METH SURGES IN IOWA

Officials Say More Women Are Hooked

Iowans' hunger for methamphetamine appears to be growing again 
despite unprecedented attempts to fight the highly addictive 
stimulant, state officials say.

"It's extremely disturbing this time," said Bruce Upchurch, the 
state's drug policy coordinator, "especially considering the 
potential effect of state budget cuts." Prison authorities and drug 
counselors say a greater proportion of meth users in trouble now are 
women compared with three years ago, when the state's epidemic with 
the stimulant was thought to have peaked.

Authorities say they face additional challenges from ecstasy and LSD 
trafficking, which have grown considerably in recent years. But 
problems created by those illicit club drugs still pale next to those 
wrought by meth, Iowa's hard drug of choice.

Consider:

* In the spring, drug agents found 5,000 hits of LSD, enough to take 
the whole of Iowa State University's freshmen class on a 
hallucinogenic trip, in an Ames neighborhood thick with students. The 
seizure was one of the biggest LSD busts in state history, easily 
dwarfing all the ecstasy netted so far this year, state narcotics 
agents said.

Yet, dose for dose, 76 times more imported methamphetamine than LSD 
has been seized this year by the state; 310 times more meth has been 
found than ecstasy.

That excludes the methamphetamine confiscated by federal agents and 
that found in hundreds of small clandestine labs around the state, 
the numbers of which are growing again.

Ken Carter, state narcotics division director, predicts Iowa's 24 
drug task forces will take in more meth by year's end than in 1998, a 
record year for seizures.

* Just last month, the proportion of Iowa inmates entering prison who 
reported meth as their primary drug of choice rose to its highest 
level ever - 30.2 percent, Upchurch said.

For the first time, women entering the prison system admitted using 
methamphetamine more than alcohol, a surprising 43.14 percent of all 
incoming female inmates.

* More people than ever have begun to flood Iowa's treatment centers 
for methamphetamine use. During the state's last fiscal year, 4,745 
people - roughly one in every 600 Iowans - were screened or admitted 
for the drug, said Janet Zwick of the Iowa Department of Public 
Health.

That's roughly 700 people over the previous fiscal year, many of whom 
received far less treatment than is recommended to treat the hard-to- 
kick drug.

John Garringer, executive director of the Area Substance Abuse 
Council in Cedar Rapids, said almost 51 percent of his agency's meth 
clients are women, up from 40 percent in 1999. The treatment 
programs, which include several rural areas in eastern Iowa, also are 
seeing record numbers of meth clients.

"We're just seeing a resurgence, and I'm not sure why," he said. "We 
really can't keep up with the demand for services."

Targeted by Mexican drug cartels as an area ripe for trafficking, 
Iowa was largely taken by surprise in the mid-1990s as meth began to 
claim thousands of addicts and overwhelm rural law enforcement, 
Carter said.

Crime triggered by the drug's erratic nature spread across the state. 
Small-time cookers of the synthetic drug grew exponentially, 
discarding toxic heaps of spent ingredients and crude laboratories 
fashioned out of rubber hoses, glass and metal.

By late in the "90s, however, the number of drug agents in the state 
had doubled, a full-time clandestine meth lab team was up and 
running, and laws targeting cookers, dealers and traffickers offered 
new weapons to fight the scourge. Iowa was among six Midwestern 
states to share $12 million annually in extra federal money because 
of acute meth problems.

Last year, Upchurch and other drug officials reported for the first 
time they were cautiously optimistic that the state had seen the 
worst of the drug. Meth seizures appeared to be dropping, as did the 
number of clandestine laboratories discovered. Treatment providers 
such as Garringer noted a dip in 2000 in the number of meth clients 
over the previous couple of years.

But the optimism was not to last.

Drug seizures by state agents are on the rise this year, and the 
federal Drug Enforcement Agency continues to find large quantities of 
imported meth in Iowa, said Mark Hine, the DEA's resident agent in 
charge. Agents in the past year uncovered two shipments of more than 
32 pounds, some of the biggest seizures since meth arrived in Iowa.

What's more, the Dakotas, Illinois and Minnesota have begun to 
experience the kinds of meth problems Iowa, Kansas and Missouri have 
had for years. Drug agents say roughly 85 percent of Iowa's supply is 
still believed to travel an interstate pipeline from Mexico and 
southern California.

Hine, Carter and others are encouraged by Congress' approval this 
year of $1 million for a 17-county coordinated drug task force, 
headquartered in the southern portion of the state.

Drug officials also are reorganizing the state's 24 drug task forces 
to make the most out of available resources, modernize techniques and 
ease the sharing of drug intelligence, Upchurch said. Authorities 
continue to work with retailers to prevent large sales of chemicals 
used to make meth, such as starter fluid, pseudoephedrine tablets and 
ether, he said.

Yet, around Iowa and the Midwest, the problem appears to grow with 
every new addict taken in. "I think much of the initial curiosity 
about meth is gone," said Marshall County Sheriff Ted Kamatchus. "The 
state has done an excellent job of promoting the down side of 
addiction. We're just dealing now with good, old-fashioned users who 
are hooked on it."

Garringer and others predict Iowa will experience a growing crime 
problem, as likely budget cuts will reduce already strapped drug- 
treatment resources. Already, agencies such as his have waiting lists 
of three to four weeks to receive outpatient counseling and treatment.

The Area Substance Abuse Council lost four staff positions following 
the last rounds of cuts, he said. "The problem with waiting lists in 
our field is that people can't wait," he said. "We need to be able to 
provide services or we're going to lose them to drug abuse."
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MAP posted-by: Josh