METH MOST VIOLENT OF DRUGS

Utah Officials Don't Want It To Become A Forgotten Drug

Sidebar: photo - Firefighters battle what is believed to be a meth lab fire
in Herriman late Sunday night. Neighbors said they heard screams coming
from a trailer that was parked nearby. Explosions sounding like shotgun
blasts were heard just before the blaze started. Scott G. Winterton,
Deseret News

In a day when club drugs such as ecstasy and GHB seem to capture the
spotlight, a small meth bust can almost escape the media glare — or is
largely forgotten by tomorrow's headlines. Over the weekend, a fire that
was possibly started in a meth lab destroyed a trailer at 13715 S. 7530
West. Officials said it wasn't the first time they had been called to the
area to investigate a possible meth lab.

But police say even a small amount of methamphetamine or single incident
cannot be ignored because one of meth's most heinous side effects is
violence. Officials are hoping that meth doesn't become a forgotten drug.

"Methamphetamine is by far the most violent drug as far as the reaction to
the brain. It is more addictive psychologically than any of the other
controlled substances, and it's more unpredictable in terms of the violence
that it causes," West Valley Police Lt. Charles Illsley said.

Illsley said he remembers when every little meth lab bust received
front-page news coverage. The number of meth labs busted by the DEA dropped
17 percent in 2000, but Illsley said that does not mean the severity of the
meth problem has gotten any better.

The risks of methamphetamine far outweigh the risks of club drugs, cocaine
and heroin combined, Illsley said.

"Ask (late Roosevelt Police Chief) Cecil Gurr's family how they feel about
club drugs as opposed to meth," Illsley said. "There's no comparison
between the two as far as risks."

Many incidents of criminal violence have meth as the common denominator,
Illsley said.

According to the 1999 Annual Report on Drug Use Among Adult and Juvenile
Arrestees, published by the National Institute of Justice, 29 percent of
the women arrested in Salt Lake County for a violent crime tested positive
for meth. No other drug in that category played as prominent a role as meth.

Meth was detected in 20 percent of the men arrested in Salt Lake County on
violent offenses. Only marijuana use ranked higher.

Overall, meth was detected in 34 percent of the women and 24 percent of the
men arrested in Salt Lake County. For the women, methamphetamine use ranked
higher than cocaine, marijuana and PCP. For the men, only marijuana use
ranked higher.

Maybe nowhere is the problem of meth-induced violence illustrated better
than in the small rural town of Roosevelt, where within a year's span two
well-publicized deaths were tied directly to meth.

In May 2000, two friends in a Roosevelt shop split a bag of methamphetamine
one man had purchased the previous night.

Each man walked away with 1.75 grams of meth, or what's known as a
"teener." It's enough to snort about 15 lines. It was the second time in
almost two weeks they had split meth with each other.

Several days later, one of the men involved in the drug sharing, Steve
Lamb, held a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger. The state medical
examiner's office determined Lamb had a "substantial" amount of meth in his
system when he committed suicide.

A man lost his life. A family lost its husband and father. And a close
friend, Val Rae Richman, lost his companion but will stand trial in Lamb's
death.

Richman was charged with manslaughter. Prosecutors accused him of giving
Lamb methamphetamine fully aware of what the drug might do and aware that
Lamb had been showing suicidal tendencies. He has another court hearing
Aug. 16.

A suicide note left by Lamb says meth had taken control of him. "Val had me
so screwed up with some s---. Well I'm just starting to get my head back
on," the letter said. A few minutes after writing those words, Lamb was dead.

"Meth is the most wickedest drug I've known," Richman said in court documents.

One of the men instrumental in charging Richman with manslaughter was Gurr,
who spent his entire career fighting the war against drugs.

"That was his first mission statement when he applied (for chief) 27 years
ago," said Roosevelt Police Chief Steve Hooley of Gurr's dedication to
combating the drug problem. "Meth is one of the worst poisons that's ever
come."

Ironically, the drug Gurr fought so hard to eliminate from his town may
have been a factor in his death. A little more than a year after Lamb's
suicide, Gurr was shot and killed by another man suspected to be high on
meth who was upset with his girlfriend because she didn't purchase enough
meth from a dealer.

Again, a widow with children is left, a town mourns for its beloved son and
law enforcement officers in several states grieve the loss of a friend and
colleague.

"His death sent a powerful message about meth," Illsley said.

Of course, meth isn't restricted to rural Utah towns like Roosevelt. It's
everywhere.

Quinn Martinez was suspected of being high on meth when police say he
gunned down two people after bursting into Chevys Fresh Mex, 7475 S. Union
Park Ave., in Sandy last year.

Some of the common signs of a chronic meth user are violence, aggressive
and compulsive behaviors and paranoia, said Dr. Patrick Sammon of the
University of Kentucky's Department of Physiology.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse said meth users can be identified by
"occasional episodes of sudden and violent behavior" and "intense paranoia."

Dr. Dave Felt, clinical director at the drug rehab center The Haven, 974 E.
South Temple, said the meth patients he sees tend to get angry very
quickly. Hard-core users especially get violent when they're craving the
drug and don't have it, he said.

Methamphetamine can destroy families. It poses a threat to neighborhoods
because of the hazardous chemicals used to make the drug. It can cause
users to go on violent rampages and kill innocent people, Illsley said.

Testifying at Richman's preliminary hearing in court, Arlene Lamb, Steve's
wife, said her husband showed violent tendencies when he became hooked on meth.

"He was angry because he thought I was having an affair. He told me he was
going to kill me and anybody around me," Lamb said.

A person on meth is typically "very violent and has no sense of
consequences. They only worry about where to get the next high," Hooley
said. Hooley said the only cures he knows for meth addiction are long-term
incarceration or death.