Pubdate: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2003 St. Petersburg Times Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419 Author: Wes Allison, Times Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METHAMPHETAMINE MAKES INROADS IN FLORIDA, GEORGIA Like so many trends, it started in California. Now it has taken root in America's heartland. Cheap, addictive and easy to make, methamphetamine has invaded small towns and counties previously unaffected by illicit drug use, especially in the West and Midwest. In Missouri, police raided 2,514 active meth labs last year, according to the DEA. In Iowa, now a hub for trafficking meth to the East Coast, the number was 871 last year, and 553 labs the year before. In Kansas, 757 labs were found last year. Even in North Dakota, with about two-thirds the population of Pinellas County, police busted 209 labs. Increasingly the drug is moving east, especially into Georgia and Florida, according to the DEA. In the year ending Sept. 30, police seized 228 meth labs in Florida, mostly in the Panhandle and Central Florida. That's up from 129 the previous year, and 28 in 2001. Hillsborough, Polk and Pasco counties are the main hubs for meth trafficking in the state. Its use is widespread in the Panhandle. "It's growing exponentially since we started, and it's not slowing down," said Tom Feeney, a Tampa-based supervisory special agent for the DEA who heads the state's methamphetamine task force. Much of the meth on the market today is manufactured in large clandestine labs in the West and Mexico, then brought east. It also is made locally, mostly for personal use and limited sales. There are a dozen ways to cook it, but most fall into two categories: One uses red phosphorous, attainable from match heads, and other chemicals to distill ephedrine from over-the-counter cold medicines. The other uses anhydrous ammonia, a compressed gas used as fertilizer, to the same effect. Meth cooks usually steal ammonia from storage tanks in farming areas. Most states, including Florida, now have laws allowing police to charge people for having combinations of chemicals, including cold medicine, acetone, iodine and large quantities of matches. One pound of meth produces 6 to 10 pounds of toxic waste, and each small seized lab costs from $4,000 to $6,000 to clean, the DEA estimates. Except in California, meth mostly has bypassed major cities, although it increasingly is being found in Tampa, Feeney said. Police worry its arrival in urban neighborhoods would trigger the same reign of violence that accompanied the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. Users "go on these binges for days and days and days. There's no other drug like that," Feeney said. "I've been in narcotics for 21 years, and I can tell you without a doubt they are the most violent, unpredictable violators you'll ever run up against." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin