Pubdate: Sun, 10 Feb 2002
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Herald Writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METHAMPHETAMINE POSES AN EPIDEMIC OF DESTRUCTION IN SNOHOMISH COUNTY

It looks benign, like table salt or something you might stir into your coffee.

But methamphetamine - known on the street as crank, crystal, stove top, 
yellow bam or redneck cocaine - is destroying lives in Snohomish County.

Rarely seen here until about five years ago, meth is now the most popular 
hard drug on the street. It is cheap, relatively simple to manufacture and 
as popular with some young people as the latest boy band or video game.

Related material:

Click here to visit the home page for this 5-part series, featuring online 
resources, interactive graphics and links to past Herald coverage of the 
local meth epidemic.

Dying for a drug fix

Nobody knows for sure just how many youths are using the drug, but a 
statewide survey three years ago found that roughly one in 10 high school 
seniors had tried meth at least once. Over the last three years, the number 
of meth-related cases in the county has more than tripled.

"There are kids in every high school in Snohomish County using meth," said 
Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish County Regional Drug Task Force, 
which investigates drug crime throughout the county, including school 
grounds. "What we don't know is if it is 5 percent or 55 percent."

Sheriff Rick Bart said he hears from people every day, from every corner of 
the county, who are struggling to save an addicted child, brother or parent.

"We are wasting kids," he said.

National studies show that 22 percent of all meth users are 18 or younger. 
Another 35 percent are 18 to 23. Washington ranks as the third-highest 
meth-producing state, and Snohomish County is among the top five counties 
in Washington where meth labs have been discovered, according to the state 
Department of Ecology, which tracks places where toxic chemical cleanup is 
necessary. Meth is unusually addictive, flooding the brain's pleasure 
centers with a supercharged jolt of chemicals that cause feelings of 
well-being. It is a long- lasting high, but one that comes at a terrible 
price. Users need increasing quantities of the drug. They stop eating and 
stop sleeping, and become increasingly paranoid, violent and impulsive as 
the drug becomes the center of their universe.

Addiction can occur with as little as four to six doses of meth, according 
to the Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded 
law enforcement partnership that includes Snohomish County.

Look below the surface of many local crimes and you will find meth, said 
John Adcock, a deputy prosecutor who has spent the past six years 
specializing in cases involving drugs and violence. Unlike cocaine, which 
must be imported from South America, meth can be manufactured with readily 
available materials, such as over-the-counter cold medicines, batteries and 
industrial solvents.

The profits to be made from manufacturing and selling the drug are too 
great a lure for many, Adcock said. And many of the "cooks" are users 
themselves.

On one level, meth is the bathtub gin, the moonshine of the new century. 
But unlike the illegal booze that was once brewed in hidden stills in 
places such as Whiskey Ridge in Marysville, meth can kill. Its purity and 
chemical composition are unknown until after it is zipping through the 
user's brain.

"Why would you put anything in your body that some drug-addled moron cooked 
up in his kitchen?" Adcock asked. "This stuff is not approved by the FDA."
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