Series: Part 1A

METH'S SURGE LEAVES A TRAIL OF MISERY IN KENTUCKY AND INDIANA

Children, States And Environment Pay A Severe Price

A meth epidemic is spreading across Kentucky and Indiana, wrecking
thousands of lives and putting the children of addicts at special risk.

Since abuse of the drug began to accelerate here in the late 1990s, meth
users have been filling prisons and jails, creating pockets of toxic waste,
overwhelming foster homes with relinquished children and burdening
drug-treatment programs, The Courier-Journal has found.

"Meth is pure evil," said Brianna Jenkins, 23, of Louisville, a recovering
user who was living in a car before her family helped her into treatment.
"It will ruin your life."

Despite years of warnings, Kentucky and Indiana were caught largely
unprepared when methamphetamine began its ruinous sweep through both states.

Eleven other states updated their laws as early as 2001 to prevent addicts
from buying enough cold and allergy medications to make meth by distilling
out the chemical pseudoephedrine. But Kentucky and Indiana failed to do
likewise, allowing the spread of makeshift meth labs in garages, fields,
hotel rooms and nearly anywhere.

Kentucky and Indiana instead focused on toughening the penalties for
possession and manufacturing of the drug and possession of pseudoephedrine.
That strategy did not slow the drug's onslaught, and now both states expect
to address the problem in their legislative sessions next year.

Because Kentucky has no formal system for tracking drug trends, state
officials conceded they cannot measure the scope of any drug epidemic,
which has hampered efforts to stop meth.

But a Courier-Journal analysis of circuit court records shows meth
indictments for manufacturing and trafficking the drug grew across Kentucky
to 1,854 this fiscal year, from 336 cases in 1998-99, a 452percent increase.

In 1998-99, the circuit courts in 32 Kentucky counties, mostly in the west,
had felony meth cases. In 2003-2004, 88 counties had felony meth cases, as
the drug moved east, according to records provided by the Administrative
Office of the Courts.

"Everyone was watching it come east," said Shane Young, a drug prosecutor
in Louisville. "Everybody knew it was coming. Problem is - how do you stop it?"

Experts, police and meth abusers alike said the sheer number of cases does
not begin to illustrate the toll meth takes on communities, families or
employers. States and counties suffer, too, in their ability to pay for
needed services.

Indiana estimates meth costs the state at least $100million a year,
including the cost of dismantling labs, handling children removed from
addicted parents, and incarcerating addicts and meth makers. Twenty
children were taken into custody in Knox County in 1999 because of their
parents' involvement with meth, and that number was expected to rise to 84
this year, according to the Indiana Methamphetamine Abuse Task Force.

In 1999, 177 makeshift labs were found in Indiana, with the total this year
expected to top 1,500. Vigo County, Ind., had to spend $6million to double
the size of its jail because of meth crimes, said Sheriff John Marvel.

"We're out there every day and every night with the drug task force, and it
is not slowing them down," Marvel said.

Lawmakers and officials in both states said they have not been ignoring the
meth problem, but rather they thought enacting stiff penalties for making
meth would be enough. In Kentucky, a conviction brings a 10-year minimum
sentence.

But critics said the states should have followed the early lead of
Missouri, Oklahoma and others that found that restricting meth's
ingredients was the single most effective solution.

"Not every state has the opportunity to watch other neighbor states go
through this, and Kentucky had Missouri," said Sherry Green, director of
the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, a group that analyzes drug
policies and laws. "The trend has been states tend to wait until the
problem was considered more of a crisis situation before they could justify
putting resources into it," Green said.

Tony King, of the Louisville office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, said at least the states are working on solutions now.
"It's like a lot of times you see a tidal wave in the ocean and don't think
it's going to get to shore," he said. "Nobody wants to put up protection
until it hits the shore."

Oklahoma and Oregon this year began requiring customers to sign a log and
provide identification to buy products containing pseudoephedrine. Missouri
last year cut the number of cold and allergy medicine packages that
customers can buy in a visit to two, from three.

Some Kentucky officials said the meth epidemic had to arrive before it
could be fought.

"I think it's unfair to say the lawmakers haven't taken care of the problem
because the problem is so difficult to come to grips with," said Pierce
Whites, Kentucky's deputy attorney general.

"This is a different kind of drug problem," he said. "To a certain extent
you have to suffer before you are ready to take strong action."

And with both states facing huge budget deficits, lawmakers said they don't
know how they will come up with the money needed to fight meth.

"We know we have to have a funding source," said Kentucky Lt. Gov. Steve
Pence, who is also state justice secretary. He conducted a series of public
meetings across the state this year to measure the state's drug problem.
"We're in the process of developing that plan," he said.

A Homemade Threat

Drug With A Long, Destructive Reach Is Made Anywhere

Meth, long a problem in California and the Southwest, has moved steadily
east, in part because it is relatively easy to make with household
chemicals and cold and allergy pills, experts said.

The drug comes as a white, odorless and bitter-tasting crystalline powder
or small brightly colored pills. It can be smoked, inhaled, swallowed or
injected.

Meth, discovered in Japan in 1919, was used by troops during World War II
to prevent sleepiness. California first saw the so-called super labs that
made meth in large quantities, but since then, experts said, the worst
threat is from small labs in garages, fields and just about anywhere else.

Carl Leukefeld, director of the University of Kentucky Center on Drug and
Alcohol Research, said meth appears to be spreading, especially in rural
areas, because users can support their habit by making and selling the drug.

Meth is different from cocaine or heroin because, police said, few people
get rich peddling it.

The drug has begun to establish itself across both states, including in
Jefferson County, which had 122 meth indictments this year, up from three
in 1999.

Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Adam Houghton likened meth's rise to the
emergence of crack cocaine in 1992. When crack first hit, police were
unaware of the problem or what it would do.

"Then it exploded," Houghton said.

"Eighteen months later, you stick your finger in the dike, and your fingers
aren't big enough. That's what methamphetamine is doing to us right now."

Western Kentucky has had the heaviest concentration of meth arrests, with
the exception of Lyon County, which has had only two meth indictments since
1998-99. But authorities said the lack of cases alone does not mean meth is
not a problem.

"We get quite a bit of information about the meth trade in Lyon County,"
said McCracken County Sheriff's Captain Jon Hayden, who has assisted in
meth investigations across the region.

"But if a county doesn't have enough police officers or a drug unit, those
problems go undetected."

State court records show the drug has been steadily establishing itself in
Eastern Kentucky, adding to marijuana and prescription pill abuse there.
"It's a growing problem there, and a huge, huge problem," said Attorney
General Greg Stumbo, who also was a longtime legislator from Floyd County.

Laurel County, for example, had 70 meth-related indictments this year, the
fifth largest number in the state, records show.

Treating Addiction

Allure Is Overwhelming, And So Is Meth's Damage

Meth's appeal is simple and powerful, users and experts say.

"It's cheap, and it lasts a long time," Leukefeld said. "Once you get it in
you, you think you can do all kinds of things."

One gram of meth - a dose that will last for hours - sells for about $100,
but it costs as little as $5 to make, police said. By comparison, a dose of
crack cocaine - generally from 1/10 to 1/2 gram - typically sells from $10
to $20, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The high
lasts for about 30 minutes, police said.

Recovering meth abusers said the drug is the best they ever used. "It's
kind of like a euphoric feeling - it kind of makes you feel invulnerable,"
said Chris Evans, 31, who just completed a drug-treatment program at the
Hardin County, Ky., jail.

But, Evans and others said, the drug also causes dramatic weight loss,
sleeplessness, paranoia, hallucinations and distorted judgment that can
result in violence. Leukefeld said he once interviewed a meth abuser who
shot his friend after becoming convinced the friend was a police officer.

Evans said his third arrest and conviction finally convinced him to seek
treatment in jail. He was granted parole after graduating from the
treatment program Dec. 17. "I've got a son, 18 months old," he said. "I'd
like to get out and be a father to him."

Treatment can work, but the two states report that their publicly funded
programs are overwhelmed.

"The Kentucky moonshine still has been replaced by the meth labs," said
Martin Wesley, who oversees a community drug and alcohol treatment center
in Bowling Green, which has a 60-day wait for one of 28 beds.

For convicted addicts, Kentucky has only two programs with 55 total slots
for 6,400 state inmates in county jails.

A study by the University of Kentucky Center on Drug and Alcohol Research
found that as many as 80 percent or potentially about 9,800 of the 12,300
inmates in Kentucky prisons have drug or alcohol problems. Only about
19percent get treatment, according to a recent state assessment. Since
then, corrections officials said they were expanding treatment.

The Silent Victims

Drug Can Sicken Children, Leave Them Without Parents

Kentucky child-protection workers blame illegal drugs - especially meth -
for the increasing number of children removed from homes because of abuse
or neglect.

Although there are no concrete numbers available for all children removed
from parents in Kentucky because of meth addiction, so far this year, 66
were found living at the site of meth labs, according to the state police.

Kentucky officials said many more children were removed because of abuse or
neglect by meth-addicted parents, including entire groups of siblings
removed from some homes. Often, social workers must split up brothers and
sisters, said Mary Ellen Nold, who oversees Kentucky's foster-care system.

"If we can't find a home that will take all of them, we have to find other
places," Nold said.

Indiana State Police found 196 children in homes last year where meth was
being made, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

Children are especially at risk for health problems when they are around
meth production, officials said.

Youngsters in such situations could develop respiratory problems, eye and
skin irritation, chemical burns and lung, kidney and brain damage,
according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Even exposure to low levels of meth chemicals can cause headaches, nausea,
dizziness and fatigue, federal officials said. Exposure also can cause
birth defects, burns and skin ulcers, according to the UK extension service.

All but seven of the 54 children taken last year from houses where meth was
being made in Greene County, Ind., tested positive for the drug either on
their clothes, skin or in their bloodstream, said Marvel, a member of the
meth task force formed by the Indiana General Assembly.

Beyond the damage to abusers, meth labs leave hazardous waste.

Materials from meth labs can spread into ground and drinking water or into
the air, resulting in explosions or fires.

Kentucky has seen a fivefold increase in the number of meth labs seized in
the past five years. This year, the state had seized 515 illegal labs by
Dec.1 compared with 104 in 2000, according to statistics compiled by the DEA.

Cleanup costs for labs dismantled by the Indiana State Police will exceed
$4.5million in 2004, according to Indiana's meth task force.

And as meth cooks try to steal anhydrous ammonia from farmers to make their
drug, they risk triggering gas leaks.

More than 300 people were evacuated from homes and five people were injured
in a multi-vehicle accident after a cloud of anhydrous ammonia covered a
section of U.S.50 in Jennings County, Ind., in August.

Thieves caused the leak when they tried to steal the gas, used by farmers
to fertilize crops, from an 800-gallon tank at the Jackson-Jennings Farm
Bureau Co-op, authorities said.

Rescuers could not get to the injured for three hours because of the fumes.

"The cloud was too intense," Jennings County Sheriff Earl Taggart said.

A Sinister Habit

Police Brace For Drug's Unwelcome Emergence

The Indiana task force concluded in October that the heaviest concentration
of meth production has been in the southwest part of the state, tracking a
path along U.S.41 from Evansville to Terre Haute.

Eastern Indiana counties are beginning to have trouble with the drug, said
Jeremy Mull, a drug prosecutor in Clark County in Southern Indiana. "It has
exploded in our community," Mull said.

Neighboring Floyd County also is seeing the emergence of meth use.

"Over the course of the last 21/2 to 3 years, we've seen it more and more
and more and more," said Paul Haub, a New Albany police officer.

But nowhere in Indiana is the problem more apparent than in Vigo County,
where state police have destroyed more labs than in any county in each of
the past five years. "Unfortunately, we've been labeled the meth capital,"
Marvel said.

Staff writer Laura Bauer contributed to this story.