RASH OF METH LABS HAS OFFICIALS WORRIED

It was a normal house on a seemingly typical rural street in Maple
Ridge. But what RCMP officers found inside was anything but normal.

In the basement of the home in the 10500-block 240th Street, officers
wearing white protective suits discovered a lab containing the
poisonous and volatile chemical components needed to make
methamphetamine -- a drug that has emergency workers walking on
eggshells every time they execute a search warrant at a suspected drug
house.

Cpl. Scott Rintoul of the RCMP's drug awareness unit said meth labs
are a growing problem in B.C., with about 40 meth-lab busts in each of
the last two years.

"Certainly when it comes to the increase in incidents associated with
chemical drugs and, specifically methamphetamines, it's well over 100
per cent," Rintoul told The Province. "It's very, very much a growing
concern."

Three people -- two Maple Ridge women aged 23 and 43 and a 30-year-old
Victoria man -- are facing charges as a result of Thursday's raid.

Rintoul said meth labs generally fall into two categories: the "super
lab" usually run by organized crime and capable of producing 4.5
kilograms or more of product and the smaller "mom and pop lab" such as
in Thursday's bust, which usually produces yields of about 28 grams
per batch.

"Most meth cooks tend to be back-yard chemists," Rintoul said, adding
the problem in B.C. is bad but nowhere near the extent of the meth
situation across the border in Washington state, where the number of
labs grew from 54 in 1994 to 1,400 in '02.

Rintoul said the meth market is continuing to grow in B.C. with the
majority of the drugs seized Thursday likely destined for local
consumption.

"Right now, it [the market] is anybody and everybody -- that is what
is blowing us away," Rintoul said, adding meth is also popular with
runaways because it curbs users' appetites and need for sleep. "It's
about 50-50 male-female and it's a white Anglo-Saxon drug. It is used
by a lot of young people. In Vancouver, it is not difficult to say
that crystal meth is huge in the gay community."

Meth has long been popular at raves and gay bars where it is often
found in "chemical cocktails" mixed with ecstasy and other drugs as an
aphrodisiac. Two-thirds of drugs seized from clubs were "cocktails,"
with 65 per cent containing meth.

With effects similar to cocaine but much more intense and longer
lasting, meth is typically sold on the street in "points," which are
one-tenth of a gram and cost between $5 and $10.

"Depending on your tolerance, that [one point] could give you a
12-hour high," Rintoul said. "And you can do it any way you want --
you can smoke it, snort it, inject it and swallow it. But the chronic
users are smoking it."

Charges pending against the trio arrested Thursday include production
of a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking
and possession of stolen property. A 1991 Jaguar convertible reported
stolen from Coquitlam and a fifth-wheel trailer reported stolen from
Burnaby were also seized in the raid.