CAUTIONARY STORIES ABOUT A DEADLY DRUG

Battery acid, anti-freeze and lye. Inanimate substances that don't generate
a lot of interest.

Snippets in our "In brief" column inside the Local/State section. News
stories that don't generate a lot of reader response.

Combine that battery acid, anti-freeze and lye and the result is what may
be the most dangerous drug to ever infiltrate Northeast Alabama.

Combine our short news stories about busts involving that drug in Marshall,
Jackson and DeKalb counties over the past few months, and you find a
disturbing trend that threatens a a way of life in some of the most
picturesque and peaceful communities in our readership area.

Writer Lee Roop and I were talking some six months ago about the profusion
of three-to four-paragraph news stories (what we call "briefs") that The
Times had been running on raids of crystal meth labs. Interesting, too, was
that these busts seem to be taking place in the rural communities of our
readership area - places generally steeped in conservative values.

Roop said he'd like to look deeper into the situation, to move the crystal
meth issue from our peripheral vision into our focus. A long-time writer,
editor and now columnist at The Times, Roop has a gift for divining trends,
delving deeply into stories through interviews and research, and writing
with insight and authority.

"I'd been seeing stories about the number of labs raided and the number of
arrests made in outlying counties, so I knew we were covering the story,"
Roop said. "But I was curious about how crystal meth seemed to have taken
hold of rural northeast Alabama, how it seemed to have skipped Huntsville
but put a stranglehold on that area."

Roop found that, aside from any recreational drug use, the properties of
crystal methamphetamine seem to accommodate the needs of the predominantly
blue-collar culture of rural areas: factory workers who do repetitive shift
work that requires very hard, very fast and very long hours. "A lot of
people started using it initially in an effort to have the extra energy to
make extra money to put food on the table," he said. "But eventually that
extra money got spent on crystal meth."

That descent from energy to addiction is a short and hard fall. As Roop
writes, "Meth's physical hold is so powerful it can wipe out a lifetime of
hard work in a few wild months."

And it is instantly addictive. "You have exactly one chance to make a
choice about this drug. Once you have tried it, you no longer have any
choice. You become its slave," said Mary Holley, an Arab doctor, who lost
her younger brother to the ravages of crystal meth.

Meth's effects are compared to crack cocaine, but authorities believe meth
is more harmful since its components are toxic ingredients not found in
nature. Since cocaine and heroin are derived from plants, the body has
enzymes to metabolize them. Meth is made of battery acid, anti-freeze and
lye - caustic chemicals that eat permanent holes in the brain.

It is well-known that you can't cook meth in a city because of its chemical
smell, making sparsely populated rural areas a natural home for labs, law
enforcement authorities said.

A great unknown is how the flood of crystal meth cases will tangle an
already taxed legal system. Those cases are just beginning to trickle into
the courts.

Despite the frightening knowns and unknowns involving crystal meth, a
heartening and hopeful side effect has been rural communities' firm
resolve. "When you don't have a lot of help, you're forced to be
resourceful," Roop said. "A lot of people from churches, schools, business,
social services and law enforcement in those areas are banding together to
fight the drug."

Town meetings on the subject have drawn hundreds, Roop said. People leave
shaken but determined.

Crystal meth is so pervasive in those rural counties, he said, it would be
hard for Huntsvillians to grasp. "In my years of reporting and editing,
I've dealt with lots of drug stories, but this is the worst I've
encountered," he said. "It's so destructive and widespread."

Not an assessment we could comprehend a few months ago.

Our newspaper is at its best when it not only reports stories but
illuminates issues - takes jigsaw-puzzle pieces of information and fits
them together to give readers a complete, multi-dimensional picture.

The reporting that begins on today's front page is an example of that kind
of perceptive writing.

Today's stories depicting the devastation of crystal meth should serve as a
cautionary tale. The voices of our neighbors in nearby counties and the
perspective of an insightful writer hopefully will educate and enlighten.

Like a good newspaper should.