RECIPE FOR CRIME AVAILABLE ONLINE

People can publish instructions for manufacturing illegal drugs on the
Internet with impunity because First Amendment rights protect free speech,
and the Internet provides "invisibility," law officials said Monday.

So-called "Nazi" methamphetamine labs are sprouting up in greater numbers
across Texas. Some of those labs may be using recipes for the drug posted
on the Internet, said one U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. But
it is not a crime to publish those recipes online.

Lonny Watson, resident agent-in-charge of the DEA's Lubbock office, said
methamphetamine labs are being seized in ever-greater numbers, but the
Internet is more of a factor than a cause.

"We do know that information is on the Internet and is available to people
to learn how to do that ('Nazi method')," Watson said. "None of our
defendants here have said this, but there have been cases where defendants
have said that they got the recipe from the Internet."

All it takes is couple of keywords typed into some search engines on the
Internet to find a recipe.

The "Nazi method" of cooking methamphetamine, or speed, originated with
German scientists in the late 1930s who developed a stimulant that soldiers
could easily cook in the field.

In Watson's jurisdiction, which encompasses the Panhandle region, speed lab
seizures went from two in 1988, to 10 in 1999. And in the first month of
this fiscal year, the DEA seized five labs, Watson said.

However, blaming the Internet for the trend toward increasing numbers of
methamphetamine labs would be illogical, said Texas Tech Professor Rodrick
Schoen.

And if a person were arrested for putting illegal drug recipes on the
Internet, proving intent to commit a crime would be difficult, at best,
Schoen said.

An expert in constitutional law, Schoen added that, publishing such
information is not completely risk-free.

"There are some cases in the federal courts where the courts themselves
have said that certain forms of published materials on how to commit a
crime could subject the author to criminal liability for aiding and
abetting a criminal offense," he said. "I think it's a poor sport not worth
the candle, for the government to try to prevent publication of information
that they think is dangerous.

"The best protection for our society is the general deterrence of the
criminal law. If someone, in fact, makes methamphetamine, then they can be
prosecuted for that."

One U.S. attorney agreed.

People may put information on the Internet that results in illegal
activity, but proving that the author of the information had criminal
intent is a legal challenge with very low odds for success, said Tanya
Pierce, assistant U.S. attorney and the lead attorney for the area's
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

"It's not as easy as a yes or no answer," Pierce said. "There's not a law
that says 'thou shall not publish methamphetamine information.' But there's
an aiding-and-abetting statute that can be applied to any federal violation
of law."

No federal prosecutors have tackled the challenge, as far as Pierce knows.

Two issues stifle legal action against people who disseminate information
that may lead to criminal acts, Pierce said. The hurdles are positive
identification, and the First Amendment, which are very high hurdles, she said.

She recalled a child pornography case that involved a man who wrote
"disgusting" things on his computer that he intended to share with other
pedophiles, Pierce said. But she could not add the offensive language or
ideas to the man's rap sheet.

"When we seized the guy's computer it had pictures on there, but it also
had a lot of writing that was horrible," Pierce said. "Disgusting things
that people said they would do to kids. It was very frustrating because
people can hide behind that computer so easily, so identity was the big issue.

"I couldn't prove he wrote it. It's not like a fingerprint or handwriting
analysis, or an eyewitness. It's difficult to prove who did what on the
Internet."

So Internet sites that provide a list of the necessary materials for
production of methamphetamine, as well as step-by-step instructions on how
to manufacture the drug, are no different than printed materials that
contain the same information, and which can be found in most libraries,
said Watson, the DEA agent.

"The information is out there and it can be accessed through a lot of
sources," he said. "So it would be difficult for us to say the trend here
is to use the Internet, as opposed to going to the public library, or as
opposed to somebody you're associated with teaching you how to do it."

Despite the rise in meth lab seizures in Texas, the state is better off
than its neighbor states, Watson said.

"I think people are looking at it from the standpoint of hopefully keeping
it from reaching the level it's reached in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri,
where they've had a lot of labs," he said. "To put it in perspective, I
think the entire state of Oklahoma is not a whole lot bigger than the area
we cover in the Lubbock office. Yet they've had more labs than the entire
state of Texas - about twice as many - seized."

Justin Boatright of Lubbock, who was arrested in November for
methamphetamine production, had a written recipe, Pierce said. But where he
got it, no one knows.

Like any process, it takes information to manufacture methamphetamine. But
information is ubiquitous and the method of delivering information is not
the problem, Pierce said.

"I don't disagree with the statement that the Internet contributes to the
meth lab problem," she said. "Anything that gives your average Joe more
access to that information is going to contribute to the (methamphetamine)
boom.

"But it used to be, before this Nazi method came to the forefront, where
you had to use chemicals, and there were underground books on how to make
methamphetamine. They've been available forever, and I'm sure many people
made many pounds of methamphetamine before. But I've never seen anyone
prosecuted for those books."