METH: A GROWING MENACE

Washington County, known as a leader in high-tech and other reputable
areas, is also becoming a leader in a growing crime trend: the use and
manufacture of methamphetamine.

Over the last few years, police drug teams have taken apart more meth
labs in Washington County than most other counties across the state.
Only one county, Multnomah, had more labs broken up in 2002.

Drug team detectives, prosecutors and psychologists all say this is a
huge problem, and it's not getting any better. They say the drug is
easy to make, the high lasts longer than most drugs, and current laws
and penalties are not a deterrent.

"The pleasure centers in the brain are triggered over and over again,"
said Rebecca Jaech, a counselor at DePaul Treatment Centers in
Hillsboro. She added that the drug boosts performance levels, which
make it attractive to people who work long hours.

Although fairly recent to Oregon and Washington County,
methamphetamine has been around since Nazi Germany, said Rich Preim, a
Beaverton Police sergeant with Washington County's Westside
Interagency Narcotics (WIN) team. It's become more available, he said,
as users discover ways to make the drug with everyday chemicals.

As a result, methamphetamine has become the county's most popular, and
one of the most easily produced drugs, detectives say. The profit to
be had -- $1,000 per ounce -- enhances the problem, they add.

"Meth is the number-one drug of choice, it has been for several years
and it will continue to be for God only knows how long," said Bob
Johnson, a Washington County Sheriff's detective on the WIN team.
"This is only getting worse, and it will continue to increase for
several years."

Sometimes meth cooks will dispose of the chemical by-products around
the neighborhoods.

"There was one on Southeast Ninth Avenue where they had dumped
five-gallon containers into the hedges," said Brad Kastner, a
battalion chief and hazardous materials officer for the Hillsboro Fire
Department. "People were constantly smelling a cat-urine odor."

Some of the chemicals include lye, acetone, brake cleaners and
gasoline additives. Mixing these chemicals together isn't exactly
safe, but that isn't stopping people from manufacturing the drug.
Preim said the WIN team broke up 60 labs in 2002, up from 58 in 2001.

WIN detectives don't just find adults in these labs; often they'll
find children living amongst the chemicals. The kids go into state
custody, and Department of Human Services officials report the kids
often have health problems associated with the labs.

Police and prosecutors also report that meth addicts are increasingly
turning to other crimes, such as stealing someone's identity and using
their credit card numbers, to get money to support their habit.

"It's so common, the crimes we see people addicted to meth involved in
- - ID theft, mail theft, forgery," said Bracken McKey, a Washington
County deputy district attorney who prosecutes meth-related cases.
Cases usually involve addicts stealing checks in the mail, then
rewriting and cashing them, he added.

Through August 2002, the district attorney's office charged 304 people
with meth-related crimes and other crimes related to their drug use.
Those included identity theft, possession of a forged instrument,
theft in the first, second and third degrees and various weapons charges.

Those numbers compare to 419 defendants with meth and other charges
throughout 2001.

In the next few weeks, this series will look further at the effects
meth has on the user and the community, and what's being done to
combat the problem.