METH IN OUR MIDST

Cassopolis Couple Caught In The Grip Of Clandestine Cancer

While neighbors slumbered peacefully on the other side of thin walls, an
evil brew was bubbling in Joe Billy and Amanda Ready's apartment.

Bottles of lethal chemicals stewed next to boxes of batteries, packets of
thousands of cold tablets, and cans of automotive starting fluid in the
24000 block of Hospital Street. In the air, an overpowering chemical stench
wafted through doors and windows, prompting passers-by to wrinkle their
noses and wonder what had caused it.

To many, this scenario would be unpleasant, even unbearable. But to the
Readys, it was just another day in their lives as "cookers" -- a street
term for manufacturers of the popular drug methamphetamine.

Originally a staple of motorcycle gangs on the West Coast, the extremely
powerful central nervous system stimulant, known on the street as crank,
crystal, speed and meth, has been making inroads into Michigan as of late,
forcing legislators and law-enforcement officials to scramble for new ways
to combat the illicit substance.

To illustrate, the number of clandestine laboratories used to manufacture
the drug found in Michigan in 1999 totaled 19. Last year, the yearly total
was 26 -- a figure that could be doubled by the end of this year.

Coffee filters and carcinogens

What's The Draw?

Sgt. Dale Hinz is a member of the Michigan State Police methamphetamine
team, a special subunit of the agency formed to fight the state's rising
tide of meth abuse.

He said the drug not only offers users a big bang for the buck (a $20 dose
provide an effect that can last more than 15 hours), but also brings the
ability to manufacture the drug to a very wide range of people.

"For the most part, (methamphetamine) can be made using materials anyone
can pick up at the local hardware store," he said.

"It takes about 20 minutes. It is not a complicated process."

Ingredients needed to make meth include items like over-the-counter cold
remedies, engine starting fluid spray, coffee filters, lithium batteries,
and agricultural fertilizers. In their original states, the ingredients are
common and easily attainable.

It's only after the process of making a batch of meth begins that they
become deadly.

"We are talking about substances known to cause cancer, that can create
highly toxic fumes," Hinz said. "The trouble is, people are mixing this
stuff together and creating serious health hazards for anyone who comes
close to it."

And that includes not only the cookers, but neighbors, children, and even
law-enforcement and emergency personnel who conduct a drug raid on the lab.
Following instances across the country where police, firefighters, and
paramedics have been sickened or maimed by fumes and explosions at meth
labs, emergency response workers are being trained how to recognize the
signs of a lab, as well as how to avoid injury when they encounter one.

Speed Bumps

Emergency workers and neighbors who unwittingly come into contact with a
meth lab and the related chemicals aren't the only ones facing a danger
from the drug. Whether smoking, shooting, or injecting the white, rocklike
substance, the users themselves face serious long-term physical and mental
health effects from methamphetamine.

"We have a very real concern with the long-term health effects of
methamphetamine," said Steve Lehman, director of Woodlands Addiction Center
in Vandalia. "People are either not using it at all, or they are regular users.

"There's no in-between."

In the short term, the use of the drug causes users to be imbued with a
feeling of power, euphoria, energy and social skills. The long-term effects
are a little more unpleasant.

"The brain of the long-term users becomes basically worn out," Lehman said.
"The drug causes the receptors on the brain to become overloaded with the
chemical that signifies pleasure. Eventually, the receptors, in essence,
become burned out, leaving the user in a permanent state of nonpleasure."

Methamphetamine can also produce physical effects that manifest themselves
in the user's appearance. Drastic and excessive weight loss is common, as
users become more interested in the drug's effects than in eating food.
That same condition can cause malnutrition in users leading to a symptom
that is a telltale sign of a heavy meth user.

"In people that have been using for a long time, you will see a rash appear
on the skin that the user will nervously pick at," Hinz said. "It's so
common with meth users that we've started calling them 'speed bumps.' "

The Strong Arm Of The Law

While police struggle to cope with the increased incidences of meth on the
street, courts are working to put cookers behind bars in an attempt to stem
the tide of the recent methamphetamine explosion. But until 1999, that
particular task was hampered by laws that limited the sentences judges
could hand out to people convicted of manufacturing methamphetamines.

Not anymore.

Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter said that two years ago, the Michigan
Legislature responded to an increasingly urgent warning call from
law-enforcement agencies who were seeing more and more methamphetamine
operations in and around the state.

In response, they enacted new, stiffer penalties for manufacturing the
drug, giving prosecutors and judges the muscle they needed to put offenders
away for longer periods of time.

"It used to be that seven years was the maximum sentence for any
methamphetamine charge, including operating a lab," he said. "Fortunately,
the legislature increased that penalty to a maximum 20- year sentence.

"It's a case of the law catching up with the offense," Teter said.

The new penalties are far more appropriate considering the dangers posed by
the labs to people who are in no way connected with them," Teter said.
Offenders not only mix the volatile mixture in secret locations where
unwary passers-by could come into contact with dangerous materials, but the
highly toxic leftover waste is often dumped outdoors or into public sewers,
spreading toxic contamination across the countryside.

"This stuff gets dumped outside, and the land is contaminated for the next
20 years," he said. "It's like leaving land mines behind."

Suffer The Little Children

Even more disturbing, Teter said, is the cooker's lack of regard for others
in the family.

That includes children, who often have no choice about the activities that
go on in their homes or suffer from neglect when their parents care more
about cooking and using meth than providing a stable, nurturing environment
for their children.

And nowhere is that more apparent than in the case of Joe Billy Ready, 28,
and Amanda Ready, 27, who cooked their product in the same apartment they
shared with their 8-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

"We began getting phone calls from neighbors about the chemical smell
coming from the Readys' apartment, and when the officers went over there,
they could smell ether coming right through the door," Teter said.

A Feb. 15 tip to the Southwest Enforcement Team led officers to the
apartment of the Ready family the next day. The couple refused to give
consent to a search of their dwelling.

"We went in with a search warrant and discovered that not only did they
have everything needed for a fully functional meth lab, but they were also
doing this in the presence of their two young children," Teter said.

"So, we put Mrs. Ready in a treatment program, and she flunks a drug test,
so she's out," he said. "We explain to her that she could lose her kids
over this, and we get her into a second treatment program. Then, when they
ask her to take a drug test, she walks out of the program."

Teter said that's a distinct result that's hard to combat.

"That's how strongly this drug can affect people," he said.

Joe Billy Ready was sentenced in August by Cass Circuit Judge Michael Dodge
to 40 months to 20 years in state prison after being convicted by a Cass
Circuit Court jury on three methamphetamine-related felony charges. Amanda
Ready is serving a nine-month sentence in the Cass County Jail after
pleading guilty to possession of methamphetamine.

The children have been placed in a foster home. And that, Teter said, is
where they belong.

"If the Readys got out of jail tomorrow, I have every reason to believe
they would go right back to what they were doing," he said.

Just the beginning

Law enforcement officials like Lt. Michael Brown of the Southwest
Enforcement Team, a multi-jurisdictional drug enforcement task force
operating in southwest Michigan, say the methamphetamine problem will
continue to plague Michigan, Indiana and other locales -- especially rural
areas.

But increased enforcement and education mean that more of the people who
test their luck with meth are going to end up getting caught.

"We are starting to get a lot of tips from people as the general public
starts to learn more about what to look for," said Brown, who heads up the
western division of South Haven, Mich.-based SWET.

"Things like people who go to a grocery store and buy 40 boxes of cold
pills; that kind of incidence is starting to catch people's eye."

And once those tips are made, police officers are quick to start gathering
the evidence they need for a search warrant and a solid conviction.

Detective Robert Babcock of the Cass County Drug Enforcement Team said that
while only three labs have been raided this year in Cass County, that
doesn't mean law police aren't planning to do the same to other meth
manufacturers.

"We know there's a lot more," he said.

(SIDEBAR)

Reporting Meth Labs

Police ask the public to call in and report suspicious activities, such as
high traffic in and out of a house, strange smells or unusual amounts of
starter fluid, cold capsules or other meth ingredients in the trash. Here
are some numbers:

Indiana

Multi County Drug Task Force (serving Marshall, Fulton and Pulaski
counties)(800) 445-3784

Starke County Tactical Narcotics Team (219) 772-3771

Elkhart County Sheriff (219) 533-4151

Kosciusko County Sheriff (219) 267-5667

LaPorte County Sheriff (219) 326-7700

St. Joseph County Police (219) 235-9611

Michigan

Michigan State Police Methamphetamine Team (866) 638-4847

Cass County Sheriff (616) 445-8644

Berrien County Sheriff (616) 983-7141

St. Joseph County (Mich.) Sheriff (616) 467-9045

Van Buren County Sheriff (616) 657-3101