Pubdate: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL) Copyright: 2005 The Gadsden Times Contact: http://www.gadsdentimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203 Author: Perry Pearson, Times Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) OFFICIALS BRING AWARENESS TO CRYSTAL METH PROBLEMS Law Enforcement Trying To Curb Rampant Growth Of Users, Labs When Leesburg Assistant Police Chief Lanny Ransom goes into classrooms in schools across Cherokee County to talk about the county's rampant methamphetamine problems, he has learned to expect the unexpected. Speaking to a group in Rainbow City last month, Ransom explained how he quizzed a group of junior high girls in Gaylesville last year. He asked them how many had either seen meth or knew a family member who had been on it or involved with it in some form. With a grimace Ransom said, "All 28 girls raised their hands." Ransom also described how he came across another sign of meth's disturbing effect on the county's children. He held up a picture drawn by a 6-year-old boy from the Sand Rock area. The picture was given to law enforcement officials by a teacher. "At 6 years old they are just learning how to write," Ransom said. "You see some words misspelled and some letters backwards ... but he wrote, 'Do not touch the dope. Do not cook the dope.'" He added, "There is a problem there somewhere because a 6-year-old student knows that methamphetamine has to be cooked." Fighting the spread of meth Hoping to combat the highly addictive drug in Northeast Alabama, Cherokee County law enforcement officials are telling anyone who will listen how the drug is destroying families and whole communities. Ransom, Cherokee County Sheriff Larry Wilson, and Jeff Morgan, commander of the county's drug task force, have been speaking to groups since September when their meth awareness class was started as a pilot program for junior high and high school age children. The law enforcement officials have since taught the class at churches and to other groups in Cherokee and surrounding counties. They hope by teaching local residents of the drug's dangers and how to spot someone who is either on the drug or manufacturing it, they can accomplish more than by law enforcement alone. Meth has become the biggest drug threat in Alabama, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Web site. The growing popularity of meth in small towns and communities is directly responsible for the increase in thefts, violent assaults and burglaries, the DEA said. Though most quantities of meth are shipped into Alabama from other areas, meth manufacturing is an ever-growing phenomenon. Meth cooks, as they are called, use readily available products like battery acid, antifreeze, Red Devil Lye and pseudoephedrine which is found in cough and cold medicines. Cherokee County has one of the worst meth manufacturing problems in the state. In 2004, 47 meth labs were seized. That figures makes up 15 percent of the 296 reported meth lab seizures across Alabama that year. According to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, 13 meth labs have already been discovered this year in the county. What's in the class The teachers hope, at the end of their almost hour-long class, residents can define meth, meth labs, recognize the signs of meth use, recognize signs of a meth lab, know the danger of labs (including their explosiveness) and know who to contact once one is suspected or spotted. "We in Cherokee County feel like education is going to be the way to start to stop this epidemic that is grasping this country by storm," Ransom said. Ransom, who made his first meth arrest in 1996, said meth has many other nicknames besides "dope." They include speed, crank, ice, glass, crystal or crystal meth. Law enforcement, he said, believes there never has been a worse drug than meth because of the violence associated with its manufacturing and its distribution. "Violence caused by this drug is directed against law enforcement, against parents and against children by their own parents," he said. The class in Rainbow City featured a bill board of "the Faces of Meth," with pictures used from a series of articles in The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. The pictures show the bodily harm the drug does in the form of drastic weight loss, blank looking eyes, and open sores that are referred to as "meth bugs." Ransom calls it a "one-time-use drug" because it takes hold of the central nervous system. "If you use it one time you are going to want to use it again and you probably will," he said during his Power Point presentation. The drug is different than drugs like crack cocaine which have a high of about 15 to 20 minutes. Meth produces an initial short-lived rush followed by a high that can last six to eight hours. "That is one hit. One use," Ransom explains. Meth, which is produced in several forms, can be smoked, swallowed, snorted or injected. Hard-core users typically inject the drug. Signs of meth users, Ransom said, include agitation, fast and excited speech, loss of appetite, increased physical activity and intense paranoia. One user in Cherokee County last year wrongly thought a car coming up his driveway was from the Sheriff's Department. "He ran and got his dope and did every bit of it," Ransom said. "Before the ambulance could get there he died of a fatal overdose." "Some people," he said, "see little green men." Violent behavior is also a factor. "They work and live for this drug," he said. "If they run out they will do whatever it takes to get more dope to get it back in their system to get themselves leveled out." One man's meth addiction The class also features a recovering meth addict in his 30s who tells how the drug has many times turned his life upside down. The local man, who freely speaks to groups but does not want his name publicized, has a harrowing story that Ransom and others feel people need to hear. The man tells of his upbringing in a "loving," rural, middle-class, Christian family. He said that after high school he was introduced to the drug by a friend. At first the drug made him feel good. But, "It lit a fire that burned out of control and then later consumed my life," he said. Meth is a "tolerance drug." "Each time you use methamphetamine, it takes that much more the next time you use it to get you where you were last time," the man said. "It is a vicious cycle. It just takes more and more." He said some of his meth-using friends would buy the drug rather than buy diapers for their young children. Once his relationship with his family members, who were trying to help him, soured and his finances dwindled, he moved from state to state taking jobs. Eventually he started dealing the drug. "I had all this dope, and all this money and ... I had friends coming out of the woodwork," he said of when he first started dealing. Once the money ran out and he lost his job things quickly changed. "I didn't have any friends .. I was broke. I had nothing." He then started manufacturing the drug. "There was never no money in it," he said. "It wasn't about the money. It was about the quantity (of the drug). That is the thing with an addict ... you can never have enough." Law enforcement finally caught up to him. He said he now is not surprised that he ended up in jail. "You are going to take it as far as you can take it," he said. The first step to recovery, he said, is admitting you have a problem. "The hardest thing about bringing the addiction to an end is surrendering, surrendering to the fact that you can't control your life," he said. How to host a class Wilson said the class is available to whatever group wants to host one. "We have done 18 churches now," he said. "We already have all of April booked and at least part of May." Those wanting more information can contact him at (256) 927-3365. Wilson feels the classes are already making a difference. "We are getting a good bit of information," he said of tips law enforcement has received. "I think the main thing is getting people aware of the problem and to know what to look for. It helps them and it helps us, too." - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager