IS IOWA'S PLAGUE HOMEGROWN?

Authorities, Ex-Users At Odds

Law enforcement leaders have been saying for a decade that most of
Iowa's methamphetamine comes from huge labs in Mexico and California,
but some treatment counselors and recovering addicts disagree.

Dr. Dennis Weis, who runs one of the state's largest meth-treatment
programs, said his clients tell him that in recent years, local
manufacturers have become the dominant suppliers.

Seeking solutions

* Drug agents in California, who use high-tech surveillance equipment
to look for large-scale meth labs, last year busted a ring of 36
people accused of smuggling 40 million cold and allergy tablets from
Canada into Southern California. The amount would have been enough to
make some 3,300 pounds of meth. Agents believe their new focus on
finding products used in making meth was the reason seizures of major
labs fell slightly last year.

* Canadian authorities this year put into effect regulations that made
ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and other ingredients controlled
substances. In recent years, smugglers bought large amounts of the
materials in Canada and slipped them into California. "There's always
room for improvement, but this definitely has had an impact," said
Doug Culver of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's chemical diversion
program.

"Everyone who comes in here is either making it himself or knows
someone who makes it," said Weis, medical director of the Powell
Chemical Dependency Center in Des Moines.

"You listen to law enforcement, and they say 90 percent of it is
coming from Mexico," he said, shaking his head. "Is that for job
security, or what? They're after the big, glamorous bust. They're
looking for the guy living in a mansion in Guadalajara. Meth isn't
glamorous. It's a dirty, nasty thing."

Dr. Rizwan Shah, a Des Moines pediatrician who specializes in treating
drug-affected babies, said she has seen a change toward more locally
made meth. She said she worries that law officers are underestimating
how many small labs are active in Iowa homes, which means they're
underestimating the number of children at risk from the fumes and
possible explosions.

Meth addicts enrolled in a prison treatment program also believe
investigators are hanging on to outdated theories. Macie Burton, a
prisoner from Des Moines, had a typical reaction to reports that most
of Iowa's meth is cooked elsewhere.

"Absolutely not," she said. "Ninety percent of the meth I did, I knew
the guys who made it."

Inmates said local meth, made with anhydrous ammonia, has become the
preferred drug because it is much stronger and often is cheaper than
the Mexican and Californian versions. Several also said police are
more likely to catch big, interstate dealers than hometown
manufacturers who sell their meth only to people they know.

State and federal law enforcement leaders acknowledge that local meth
labs are an increasingly dangerous problem. They complain that they
have to spend too much time cleaning the labs up, because the
chemicals are hazards to neighbors. But they say they still believe at
least 85 percent of Iowa's meth comes from out of state.

Ken Carter, director of the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement,
said agents base their estimates on drug seizures and interviews with
the dealers they arrest.

Carter said out-of-state meth tends to be about 25 percent pure, while
homemade meth is about 75 percent pure. But he said Iowa still sees
huge shipments of the Mexican version. The explanation may be that the
small, local labs can't supply nearly enough of the drug to keep up
with Iowans' voracious appetite for the drug, he said.

Carter laughed when told of quietly voiced suspicions that his agency
overestimates interstate trafficking in order to snare federal grants.
"I get that federal grant money because of our runaway lab problem,"
he said.

Even some police are skeptical, however. Ron Voshell, an Oelwein
officer, said he sees nothing but homemade crank.

"I'm telling you right now there's methamphetamine being cooked in our
town that will be used right here by our citizens. I've never heard
anyone say they got Mexican meth.