Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jan 2005
Source: Advocate-Messenger, The (KY)
Copyright: 2005 The Advocate-Messenger
Contact:  http://www.amnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1253
Author: Gary Moyers, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH USE STARTED IN THE WEST AND HEADED EAST

This is the first installment in a three-part series on
how methamphetamine use has spread to central Kentucky.
Coming Monday: Canary in the Coal Mine

In 1998, the number of felony methamphetamine cases in Boyle, Casey,
Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties was four - all in Lincoln County.

Last year, those same counties prosecuted 29 felony cases - evidence
of a growing criminal problem that until just a few years ago was
confined mainly to the western part of the state.

Maj. Mike Sapp, head of the Kentucky State Police Special Enforcement
Division, which includes the drug enforcement division, says it's a
problem that will get worse before it gets better.

"It's been increasing steadily over the last few years, and it's no
different this year," he said. "We've seen a rise of about 10 percent
this year over last year, and that's with preliminary numbers. Its
main attractions are you can make it yourself, it doesn't have to be
imported, you can buy most ingredients across the counter, and it has
a very high profit margin. It's so highly addictive that once you're
on it, it's a long road to beat it."

Twenty-nine cases in a year may not sound like a lot, but it
represents an increase in those five counties of more than 700
percent, and Sapp isn't surprised.

"We first became aware of the threat in Kentucky in 1998," he said.
"Methamphetamine was moving east from its origin in California, and I
did a threat assessment at that time projecting its growth in our
state. That threat assessment has held true. And it's going to get a
lot worse, I'm afraid."

Lincoln County Commonwealth's Attorney Eddy Montgomery said meth use
has exploded, "without a doubt."

"I was commonwealth's assistant attorney in 1996, and in '96 we had no
methamphetamine cases, but tons of cocaine cases. Now, we have tons of
meth cases, but very few cocaine cases. I think it's replaced cocaine
as a drug of choice," said Montgomery. "What you're seeing is smaller
groups of people making their own, and teaching each other how to make
it. Many use it themselves."

Methamphetamine is a synthetic Schedule II narcotic that affects the
central nervous system and is highly addictive. Also called crank and
poor man's cocaine, it is taken orally, injected, smoked or snorted,
and typically costs about $100 per batch to make, with a street value
of $1,000.

Because of its relative ease of production, the National Drug
Intelligence Center reports that 31 percent of all state and local law
enforcement agencies consider meth their primary drug threat.

Most of the ingredients - iodine, pseudoephedrine or ephedrine (cold
medicine), road flares or matchbook covers for the red phosphorus, and
anhydrous ammonia (fertilizer) - can be bought in retail outlets.

Most Users Are Male, White Adults

According to treatment data from KSP gleaned from meth-related
treatment admissions, 64 percent of users are male, 97 percent are
Caucasian, and 97 percent are adults over the age of 19. Most were
between the ages of 20 and 44, and in Kentucky, admissions were
equally divided between rural and urban users.

And the problem continues to grow.

"If trends of use on the West Coast are any forecast for Kentucky
addicts, the worst is yet to come," said State Police drug enforcement
Sgt. Alan Lewis.

"It's been on the rise since 1999 ... In my opinion, it hasn't peaked
yet," said Lewis. When will it peak? "To be honest, I really don't
know. It started in the West and headed East. The problem in the West
hasn't decreased yet. Based on what I've seen, we're still in for a
problem in the near future."

According to KSP's annual crime report information, 376 meth labs were
found in Kentucky in 2003, the latest year for which complete
statistics are available. That compares to 156 in 2001, a jump of more
than 100 percent in two years.

Nationally, the number of meth labs seized rose from 327 in 1995 to
more than 7,000 in 2003, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Sapp said one of the reasons meth is so popular among drug
manufacturers is the ease with which a lab can be constructed and hidden.

"We're finding them everywhere - it doesn't make it harder to find
them, it just creates new problems in each new place. For instance,
we've found them in caves, and that creates higher risk for personnel
because of ventilation. And we're finding them every day."

Because the ingredients are so common, Sapp said the labs are easily
hidden.

"You can walk into a lab and not realize it's a lab," he said,
pointing out that meth labs contain toxic chemicals that emit noxious
chemicals and pose deadly dangers to first-responder personnel such as
law enforcement officers, firefighters and ambulance workers.

Bringing a Crime Wave to Rural Areas

The arrival of meth in central Kentucky brings an associated rise in
crime. According to a report by the Council of State Governments,
drug-related crime nationwide rose 10.5 percent between 1997 and 2002,
compared to an urban decrease of 11.2 percent. Translated, meth is
bringing a crime wave to rural areas traditionally far removed from
that in urban areas.

Kentucky ranks 41st in the nation in violent crime rate, according to
DEA, which calls meth an "exploding trend in Kentucky," and predicts
the problem will expand from small, clandestine labs producing limited
amounts of the drug to more sophisticated, large-scale operations.

Boyle County Sheriff LeeRoy Hardin, whose office dealt with four meth
lab seizures last year, said, "I think it'll get worse. It's not real
bad here like other places yet, but we see more and more. We have to
be alert to it all the time. It's a growing problem, and right now
there's not been a lot of good news."

Harrodsburg Detective Sgt. Garry Bradshaw, who saw Mercer County jump
from no meth lab seizures in 1998 to six last year, is worried, too.

"Supposedly for every one we know about, there are nine more we don't
know about." 
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