Pubdate: Mon, 31 Mar 2003
Source: Oak Ridger (TN)
Copyright: 2003 The Oak Ridger
Contact:  http://www.oakridger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1146
Author: Beverly Majors

POLICE LIEUTENANT TELLS ROTARIANS ABOUT METH

Oak Ridge Police Lt. Mike Uher told members of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge 
Thursday how to make methamphetamine.

Uher spoke to the club during its regular lunch session Thursday and talked 
about what chemicals are used to make clandestine meth labs.

"I'll give you the ingredients to make meth but I will not give you the 
recipe," Uher told the group.

Uher said a person can go to Wal-Mart and purchase $200 worth of legal 
products and use those products to make $2,000 worth of meth for the street.

Uher said local methamphetamine manufacturers can be anyone's friends or 
associates who "make it, sell it, use it and take the money from selling it 
to buy more ingredients."

Uher said he tells his officers that if they see packages of Sudafed and 
Drano and coffee filters in a car when it is stopped for a traffic 
violation, "arrest the driver."

"If he doesn't have snot running out of his nose, he doesn't need four 
boxes of Sudafed," Uher said. He also said he tells his officers to use 
their own discretion and common sense when making an arrest. He said most 
of the officers know who the offenders are.

Uher showed the group a cardboard box, about 20 inches by 20 inches, and 
said "this is a meth lab."

The box contained all the basic ingredients to make meth. All the items 
were purchased at local businesses and were easily obtained.

Uher described the methods for making meth: Red phosphorus method, the Nazi 
method, and methcathinone.

He said the Oak Ridge Police Department is the only agency reporting seeing 
the methcathinone method. He said the method is the most common in this 
area and the most deadly.

Answering questions from the group, Uher explained that the Nazi method got 
its name because "they were all on it." He said Adolf Hitler was a 
methamphetamine user.

He also said that although the military and other groups use certain drugs 
described as "speed," there's a big difference in pharmaceutical and 
clandestine.

Chief David H. Beams described that a lab becomes "mobile" because it can 
be moved quickly.

He said people making meth do not stay in one place very long.

"They get out of jail from a bust in Oak Ridge and go to Marlow," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens