RURAL LAWMEN WAGE LOSING BATTLE AGAINST METH

Dealers and Addicts Popping Up Everywhere, Even As Seizures Escalate

LUFKIN, Texas - Benches lined the back of the house for buyers
awaiting assistance. A hand-scrawled sign read: "Please do not bang
loudly on window. Tap or knock lightly. Thanks."

It wasn't the worst methamphetamine lab that Angelina County sheriff's
Sgt. Barry Saucier had busted. But it might have been the oddest.

"She set up a drive-through window at her house," the veteran
narcotics investigator marveled when describing the woman he arrested
about six months ago.

The meth problem is so pervasive in this East Texas county that Sgt.
Saucier can't go out to eat without somebody coming up to him to ask
for help with a neighbor, friend or family member.

He and his colleagues have busted around 300 labs since the drug
surfaced in the county about five years ago. More than 1,900 meth labs
have been shut down statewide since January 2000, including 253 in the
first six months of this year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Scratching Surface

Law enforcement officials say they've barely scratched the surface.
And despite a number of promising initiatives - including a new task
force led by the U.S. attorney's office in Beaumont - authorities
admit this is a war they can't win. There are simply too many addicts
and too many dealers.

Sitting in his office under the watchful eyes of his trophy deer,
Angelina County Sheriff Kent Henson shakes his head while describing
how meth has hit his county of 80,000 people at the edge of the Big
Thicket. He talks of the retired couple who lost their ranch and life
savings because their son was hooked on meth and wouldn't stop
stealing from them. The addict who blew through a $150,000 inheritance
in six months. The dealer who left jail and went right back to his lab
because he could make a few thousand dollars in a few hours of cooking
the drug. The 13- and 14-year-old girls who sold their bodies for
meth, sometimes in front of video cameras.

Sheriff Henson thinks about nine out of every 10 families in the
county has been touched by meth. He knows about 85 percent of the
people in jail at any given time are there because of it.

"If this isn't an epidemic, then I don't know what is," Sgt. Saucier
said.

Easy to Make

What makes meth so hard to contain is its simplicity. Just about
everything needed to cook a batch can be bought at Wal-Mart, and an
entire lab can fit into a big plastic bin. Because the labs are easy
to transport, meth cooks can hide in the woods, on rural roads or even
in moving minivans for the two or three hours it takes to make a
batch. Since rural police and sheriff departments lack the resources
to catch them all, many cooks don't bother leaving their homes.

It's a drug that gets most users hooked on the first try,
investigators said. Meth is a powerful stimulant that produces an
incredible high that keeps users awake for hours and seems to wash all
their troubles away, said Gary West, a counselor at the Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Council of Deep East Texas.

The problem for users is that coming down from meth produces such deep
depression and anxiety that users attempt to stay stoned for as long
as they can. The drug causes hallucinations and intense paranoia that
can lead to violent behavior.

Getting over the physical and psychological addiction is difficult,
Mr. West said. Only about 20 percent to 30 percent of his clients
manage to stay sober long-term.

Treatment isn't easy to come by, especially in rural areas, where a
disproportionate number of the addicts are found.

There's a three-to four-week waiting list at the Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Council of Deep East Texas, which offers state-funded treatment
to residents of 13 counties.

The difficulties of dealing with the meth problem became too clear
last Christmas, when Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nikky Green was
fatally shot by a man high on meth. The officer had been checking
reports of a suspicious vehicle near the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Oklahoma recently implemented legislation restricting access to a key
ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine, found in some cold
medications. Under the law, bail is revoked for those arrested on
methamphetamine possession charges. Meth busts fell 70 percent in
three months.

Texas lawmakers are expected to pursue a similar law during the 2005
legislative session.

Federal task force

The federal government's Methbusters initiative, directed from
Beaumont, coordinates the efforts of federal, state and local law
enforcement officers. Federal charges often result in longer prison
terms and more stringent bail requirements.

While those initiatives may break up a number of local labs, most meth
addicts will manage to find other sources, said Dan Easterwood,
assistant commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety's
Narcotics Service.

Mexican drug cartels have gotten into the methamphetamine market and
are smuggling increasing amounts of cheap, high-quality meth across
the border. Seizures in the busy El Paso Border Patrol region rose
from 11 pounds in 2000 to 706 pounds in 2003.

Sgt. Saucier said he's glad the feds have stepped in to help. Tougher
sentences will help keep dealers away from people who aren't hooked
yet and might serve as a deterrent for those who are. But he doesn't
think new laws or more patrols will be able to eliminate meth.