Pubdate: Wed, 06 Aug 2003
Source: Drayton Valley Western Review (CN AB)
Copyright: 2003 Bowes Publishers Limited
Contact:  http://www.draytonvalleywesternreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/980
Author: Chad Sheeler
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

COMMUNITY WORKERS GET METH EDUCATION

An educational session on methamphetamine was held for community-based 
workers July 29 at the Omniplex.

Cpl. Harold Trupish from "K" division RCMP was on hand to give 
community-based workers an up close and personal look at meth, or speed, 
and how it is produced.

The workshop was held so that people who work within the community and have 
access to normally restricted areas could gain knowledge about meth and its 
production. Meter readers, social workers, motel cleaning staff and others 
are routinely granted access to places where they could come into contact 
with chemicals or meth labs. The idea behind the workshop is to make sure 
workers are safe when doing day to day routines. By knowing what the 
chemicals look like and what the labs may look like, workers would be able 
to protect themselves from harm and also help officials catch drug producers.

Trupish gave workers a rundown of clandestine labs.

"The labs are where producers take things legally obtained and make 
something illegal," he said. "It's very fast (to produce). The time it 
takes to make a pot of coffee I could make a batch of meth."

Workers were shown various methods of meth production and how production 
evolved. The first method produced a weak form of the drug because it was 
not absorbable by the brain and so never got into the mainstream, he said. 
"It was only about 40 per cent pure and was mainly used by biker gangs to 
prove a point."

"In '93 someone discovered you could make it in under four hours" using 
what 's called the red phosphorous method. "This really revolutionized meth 
use. All of a sudden someone without a background in chemistry could make 
the stuff in less than four hours."

The speed this method produces is very effective.

"It hits your brain like a Mac truck," said Trupish.

Next came the "Nazi" method. A person can make a batch of meth in 35 
minutes using anhydrous ammonia. This method isn't as popular among big 
producers because it yields only small amounts of the drug, said Trupish.

Because the body expels about 30 per cent of meth through urination, some 
addicts may obtain the drug in urine labs, said Trupish. "They will collect 
the urine and then evaporate it to get more of the drug. There was a case 
in Los Angeles where someone had 85 gallons of urine stockpiled."

There was also a case in Drayton Valley where someone took large quantities 
of Vicks inhalers and extracted the small amount of ephedrine (another 
precursor), said Trupish. The method is very weak and diluted and can't be 
absorbed by the brain.

Drugstore workers were also warned of people coming into the store and 
buying large amounts of cold medicine so they could extract the ephedrine 
from the tablets.

"If all else fails people go to the drugstores. One box of cold medicine 
can produce five grams of meth in a relatively simple process."

The workshop comes after police have been noticing a rise in the production 
of meth. Alberta came second in all of Canada, after B.C., in the number of 
meth lab busts. The problem has spread across two-thirds of the province, 
said Trupish.

"It's something that seems to be growing and it's not going away."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom