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VAIL'S ADDICTIVE UNDERWORLD

Cocaine Still Reigns In Valley's Bustling Narcotics Scene

When Vail was built in 1962, methamphetamine's war-hero status was just being reconsidered.  Given to GI's in WWII and the Korean War to increase performance and alertness, amphetamines were causing an epidemic in Japan.  Stateside, prescription users of Benzedrine, an over-the-counter inhaler for congestion, were shooting it into their veins.  The next year the Attorney General of California requested that injectable ampules be removed from the market.  Flash forward to 2003.  The legal has become illegal.  Vail is one of the world's premier ski resorts.  As a purveyor of escape and pleasure for those with expendable income, it's only natural that drugs would have a foothold in Vail.  More surprising might be that the area just had its first bust of an active methamphetamine lab in Wolcott on April 18.  The bust confirmed local law enforcement suspicions that Grand Junction's and Denver's battle with the drug was creeping into the mountains.

"It was only a matter of time," says an officer in the Eagle County Crime Response Team who's anonymity is an essential part of his undercover narcotics work.

Meth is cheap, easy to make ( "Unfortunately, you can learn on the Internet," says the officer ), and can be extracted from common household products.  "Tweaker" labs, as they're often called, can be set up in any decent-size enclosed area, including a car.  Lifeormeth.org refers to it as the "poor man's cocaine" because like coke, it's an "upper," but more powerful than coke, lasting longer, costing much less, and much more addictive.

"Only 6-9 percent of the people who try it will ever get off it," says the officer.  "That's what generates the labs.  Addicts eventually just start making it for themselves."

With that combination of availability, efficacy, economics, and addiction, it almost seems strange it took so long to get to Eagle County.  But just like it's hard to sell a Honda Accord to a millionaire, the sophisticated drug clientele of the valley has thus far not been very interested in the "poor man's cocaine." They prefer the real thing.  When asked for his perspective on the local drug scene, a 30-something Vail resident replied, "I've got too many perspectives.  Do you want an overall perspective, or do you want to go into the bathroom and do a line perspective?"

Like SUV's, coke - though overpriced and getting very little "high" mileage - - is still king.  Local law enforcement officers testify that it's still the predominant usage among upper category substances, and if you ask a student at a local high school what the biggest drug threat is, he'll say coke.  In an affluent society, coke rules due to its mystique.  According to the Crime Response Team Officer, even the psilocybin mushrooms are now packaged in shaped chocolate with gold tinfoil.

It's a long way from the 70's, when marijuana seemed to dominate the drug scene, always a small, underground affair.

"It was just pot back then," says one long-time Eagle County local, "although the pot is better now than it used to be." ( Risking the questioning of our journalistic integrity, the Vail Trail was not willing to test the validity of this statement.  )

But beneath the facade of marijuana and cocaine, the amphetamine movement is apparently gaining steam.

"Meth usage is increasing," says the Crime Response Team officer, "and it's only a matter of time before the next bust."

Meanwhile, the head of the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Agency, Asa Hutchinson, recently called meth the "number one scourge of rural America.

Fifteen percent of local high school seniors had tried amphetamines in 2001, 3 percent higher than the national average, according to the Eagle County Youth Coalition's Eagle County Cares Survey.

"Most people are making the right choices," says Youth Coalition Director Beth Riley, "but that is a blip on the screen."

The category of amphetamines does not point only at meth.  The club drug Ecstasy is also an amphetamine-based substance, and one about which there is a lot of misinformation circulating.  For instance, if you Google search the word "ecstasy," the first Web site that comes up is" ecstacy.org," the platform of Nicholas Saunders, a British writer who devoted the latter part of his life ( before his death in 1998 ) to disseminating information about the drug that could hardly be called "discouraging."

A large portion of the Web site is devoted to people's various experiences with the drug and questions about its effect on relationships, spirituality, and health.  Following each experience is the response of a doctor.  The site gives the overall impression that Ecstasy is powerful and should be treated with caution, but that with informed, moderate usage it can be a gateway towards emotional and spiritual growth.

Indeed, after it's discovery in 1912, Methylenedioxy-n-methylamphetamine, or MDMA, was for some time used by therapists to connect with patients.  This practice was common up until the 1980's, when it was determined that MDMA had no real medicinal qualities.  Unlike meth, the chemicals used to make Ecstasy are now banned in most countries, and so 99 percent of it comes from Holland.  ( Another major source, until the ending of Apartheid exposed the underground industry, was South Africa ).  It's popularity is due then not to ease of availability but its connection with the rave music scene and the perception that the drug grants a "third eye" experience.

Looking closer at ecstacy.org, most of the information on the Web site is dated from 1996 and '97, while information regarding the drug's damaging physical effects is much more recent.

"Distinguished medical journals are now saying for the first time that it causes brain damage," attests the Crime Response Team Officer.

By attempting to regulate the levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter for moods and behavior, Ecstasy kills the serotonin cells, which can lead to depression.  In effect, you can never be as happy as you once were.  In addition, the drug raises body temperature and causes dehydration, and the possibility of overdose is always a factor since the body is unable to build a tolerance for it.

"It might be the first or the fiftieth time that your body decides it can't process this substance," says the Crime Response Team Officer.

He describes an Ecstasy overdose as a slow, painful death, a "bleeding from the inside out."

Another twist to the drug scene is the abuse of prescription painkillers.  According to the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, "drug shopping," in which someone solicits prescriptions for things like Vicadin, codeine, and Oxycontin from several different doctors concurrently, is on the rise.  Like many habits, it became popular first on the Front Range and then filtered up into the mountains, according to police.

The most disturbing trend to the Crime Response Team Officer though, is the younger age of the drug clientele, both in terms of the age when experimentation begins and the caliber of the drugs being experimented with.

"That's a trend nationally, but we definitely see it here locally," he says.

Of course, as Riley will tell you, the biggest problem among kids is still the one right in front of everyone's faces, alcohol.

"It's our number one concern," she says.

While the percentage of Eagle County Youth using alcohol is only about 50 percent, that figure still makes it the most abused drug out there.  q