CRYSTAL DEATH

Methamphetamine Use Grows - Feds Fear an Epidemic Here

A highly addictive, easy-to-obtain drug blamed for ravaging the
nation's heartland is creeping into New York - and has federal agents
and cops mounting a full-blown crackdown.

On the street, methamphetamine is known as poor man's cocaine, tina,
crank, crissy, crystal meth - or simply meth.

Already popular among segments of the city's gay community and club
kids, meth has shown signs of extending its poisonous reach to a wider
population in New York.

"We are alarmed because we have seen a significant uptick in the
availability of methamphetamine," said Anthony Placido, special agent
in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's New York division.

"What we are hoping is to avoid being taken by surprise, as was the
case with crack cocaine," Placido said. "Crack cocaine made a small
start in New York, and then it seemed like almost overnight it reached
full-blown epidemic status."

In the past year, the DEA has seen its crystal meth seizures surge by
31% across the state.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan also have
handled more than 30 arrests linked to crystal meth in the past six
months. There were just 11 arrests in all of 2003.

And over the past six months, more than $2.5 million worth of meth has
been confiscated from dealers in the cases handled by Manhattan
federal prosecutors.

Meth typically is sold as a white powder that dissolves in water, but
it also comes in chunky crystals and colorful tablets. The drug can be
injected, snorted, smoked, swallowed or absorbed anally.

Meth pumps the feel-good chemical dopamine into the brain. The result
is increased stamina, decreased inhibitions and a high that can last
for days. The drug also causes extreme fatigue in the long term, loss
of appetite, psychotic behavior and brain damage similar to
Alzheimer's disease.

Meth has plagued the West Coast and rural America for more than a
decade, becoming the nation's top drug while seeping toward New York.

The effect already is being felt in the city. In 2001, there were no
meth overdoses reported in the five boroughs. The combined total for
2002 and 2003 was about 50, according to the city Health Department.

Still, the abuse, for now, is dwarfed by cocaine and other traditional
drugs. "Although its prevalence is relatively small, emergency room
admissions have increased, and that concerns us," said Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "We want to nip this in the bud by
destroying the labs and killing distribution before it catches fire
like crack."

Bridget Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutor, said meth is
still a niche drug, with 35 people busted on meth charges by the NYPD
in two years.

Unlike the middle of the country, where mom-and-pop labs are
prevalent, the meth peddled in New York is mostly cranked out by
superlabs in Mexico and California. But the DEA and state police also
have seen a major surge of smaller labs around upstate Binghamton,
near the Pennsylvania border, and farther north.

In 1999, there were only two known meth labs in the state. By last
year, the number had exploded to 73, a disturbing trend but still
behind the thousands of labs in Missouri and other Midwestern hot spots.

"It's been pretty much doubling each year," said State Police Capt.
Richard Nuzzo. "If you turn a blind eye to it, it will quickly overrun
your community. It's like a cancer."

Gov. Pataki is crafting a legislative proposal that would create tough
penalties for manufacturing meth, a source said. State law currently
only hands down punishments for possessing or selling meth.

It has been more than a decade since the DEA has targeted drug users
rather than dealers.

Yet when it comes to meth, the legal line separating the two is thin.
The powerful drug is discussed by authorities in terms of grams - not
kilos, like cocaine.

Selling 5 grams of meth, worth roughly $500, triggers a mandatory
federal sentence of five years. "That's about 100 to 150 hits. It's
not that much," federal prosecutor David Esseks told a forum of mostly
gay men in the West Village last month.

One of the greatest reasons meth is hard to combat is because it can
be made easily by mixing widely available household products. Recipes
are posted on the Internet, and the key ingredient, pseudoephedrine,
is contained in over-the-counter cold medicines.

"If you can make pancakes from scratch, you can cook meth," Placido
said.

The feds require retailers to limit the quantities of cold medication
sold, and they monitor sales of ingredients in camp fuel, iodine,
drain cleaner and other products.

One message is ever-present: Crystal meth is enormously
destructive.

"People who distribute crystal meth are real drug dealers, and the
federal laws deal with them like real drug dealers," Esseks said.
"It's an ugly place to be."