METH BUST SENDS COPS A MESSAGE

Officials Worry Southland Demand For Drug Is Rising

The summer after his junior year in college, Matt and some friends
went on a road trip that was to be filled with music, good times and
lots of drugs.

On that trip four years ago they did LSD, marijuana and hallucinogenic
mushrooms. They also smoked a lot of crystal meth, another name for
the powerful stimulant methamphetamine.

The road trip ended for Matt in an emergency room in Cleveland after
he overdosed on crystal meth, which authorities consider one of the
deadliest and most addictive drugs.

"I got to the point where either I was going to choose life or death,"
said Matt, now 27.

"I'm glad to be alive today."

Earlier this month, Chicago Ridge police seized almost 10 pounds of
methamphetamine at a local trucking terminal.

And it's stories like Matt's that have local authorities worried in
light of the drug seizure.

Police know that where there is a supply there is a demand, and when
the supply is an illegal drug such as methamphetamine, many others are
likely to have stories like Matt's.

The seizure of the methamphetamine in Chicago Ridge -- one of the
largest shipments of the drug ever confiscated in Illinois -- sent a
message, authorities said, that there's a demand for the drug in the
Southland.

"It's definitely disturbing," said Sgt. Mike Ryle, a narcotics and
gang investigator for the Chicago police department.

The shipment of methamphetamine seized by Chicago Ridge police on June
13 came from California, where the drug is widely manufactured and
used, authorities said.

Ryle said Chicago police have been bracing in recent years for a flood
of methamphetamine to hit the city's streets.

"It has not happened yet. But it's just a matter of time," he
said.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant and can have hallucinogenic qualities.
It is a form of amphetamine, which is legally prescribed for weight
loss.

But methamphetamine is illegally manufactured in different forms under
various names including "chalk," "crank" and "meth," authorities said.
It is more potent than amphetamine, authorities said.

Crystal meth or "Ice," which Matt was using, is a super-pure form of
methamphetamine specially prepared for "free-basing," or smoking.

Authorities consider methamphetamine the most potent
stimulant.

"The intensity of meth puts cocaine to shame. It's definitely not a
drug that you want to see on the street or grow in popularity," said
Cher Conrad, a counselor at St. Margaret Mercy Comprehensive
Counseling and DUI Services in Calumet City.

Methamphetamine is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline
powder that can be digested, smoked, inhaled and injected, authorities
said.

The effects of methamphetamine can last six to eight hours. After the
initial rush, there is typically a state of agitation that in some
individuals can result in violent behavior, authorities said.
Continued use of the drug literally causes the body to burn itself up,
authorities said.

Matt, who asked that his last name not be used, grew up in a stable
middle-class family in one of the more affluent suburbs in the Southland.

He played sports and got good grades in high school and later went on
to study marketing at a state university in Illinois.

During his high school and college years Matt "dabbled" in drugs such
as marijuana, LSD, ecstasy and cocaine.

"I enjoyed partying, and I always thought that I had my partying in
control. It didn't interfere with my studies, and I was able to keep
it low-key," Matt said.

At the start of his junior year in college, friends introduced Matt to
crystal meth.

"It was the ultimate high. When I was tweaked (high on meth) I felt
like I was on top of the world. It was immediate gratification. The
rush smoking meth gave me was intense. It was unlike any other high,"
he said.

While the high was intense, so was the "jones," or the craving Matt
acquired for the drug.

"The come-down off of meth is rough, and I quickly got to a point
where nothing seemed to matter except getting that tube and that
crystal (meth) and getting that rush back," he said.

Matt's grades suffered, and he barely finished his junior
year.

"I had lost weight, I wasn't eating hardly at all, and I was staying
up for days at a time. When I wasn't sleeping I was smoking (meth). It
caught up with me I guess," Matt said.

"I didn't care at that point," he said.

It was in that emergency room in Cleveland where Matt decided to make
his choice.

"I felt like my heart was going to explode. I couldn't breathe. I
couldn't feel my body. I thought I was going to die. If I didn't (die)
I think I wanted to at that point. It was bad."

Matt spent the next two years in and out of inpatient drug rehab
centers.

"My parents were doing everything they could to help me, but I'd keep
relapsing. I'd get that jones," he said.

Today, Matt is celebrating two years of sobriety.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that an estimated
9.4 million Americans have tried methamphetamine, said Michael
Hillebrand, a spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Methamphetamine has been around for years, he said.

Originally, it was used as an asthma medication, and found favor among
some World War II servicemen for its ability to keep them awake,
authorities said. But its harmful effects were known as early as the
1930s, authorities said.

"The drug's popularity began to grow in the 1950s and 1960s. A lot of
it then was being controlled by" motorcycle gangs, Hillebrand said.

"But today you have methamphetamine labs popping up across the country
in basements, forests and farms, and you have it being shipped in from
the Republic of Mexico, where it is easier for people to get the
chemicals used to create the drug," Hillebrand said.

Until a few years ago, the drug was mostly used by white, blue-collar
men. But authorities said today methamphetamine is being used by
people from all social classes and ethnic backgrounds.

In Illinois, most arrests related to methamphetamine are made in
central Illinois and areas bordering Iowa and Missouri, Illinois State
Police spokesman Lincoln Hampton said.

The main reason for this is because methamphetamine normally is
created or "cooked" in rural areas, he said.

The labs are set up in lightly populated areas because a strong smell
is produced when making the drug, Hillebrand said.

Plus, the chemicals used to make the drug are highly toxic and
flammable, and accidents would draw attention in highly populated
areas, authorities said. Many people have been killed making
methamphetamine, and others have been killed cleaning up "meth labs,"
Hillebrand said.

In Illinois, the most common method of methamphetamine production uses
anhydrous ammonia, an extremely volatile chemical but one that is easy
to find in rural areas because it's a common fertilizer, authorities
said. It can also be produced using cold tablets, alcohol, ether,
paint thinner, Epsom salts and drain opener.

Last year, state police reported that production of the drug is on the
rise in Illinois, with a 10-fold increase in the number of meth labs
seized in just the last few years.

Hampton said the drug is not moving north from southern Illinois at an
alarming rate.

"But there's a presence," Hampton said.

But even the smallest presence of methamphetamine in an area like the
Southland can result in hundreds of stories like Matt's, authorities
said.

"I have no doubt that the methamphetamine that we seized was going to
make its way on the streets in the south suburbs and Chicago," Chicago
Ridge Deputy Police Chief Tim Baldermann said.

"While this is a major bust, I'm sure shipments like this are coming
into the Chicagoland area all the time," he said.