THE SCOURGE OF METH

The proliferation of illegal methamphetamine labs has become a Colorado
epidemic in the past four years, leaving a trail of broken human beings and
deadly pollution in its wake.

So serious is the problem that both Denver dailies focused on clandestine
meth labs last weekend: The view of what meth has done to those who use and
cook it, their families and children, landlords unlucky enough to rent
space to meth cookers, and even first responders poisoned by the deadly
chemicals used to make "crank" makes for an ugly picture.

Although 80 percent of the crank used in the United States is made in
illegal commercial-scale labs in California and Mexico, about a fifth of
the drug is cooked in highly portable "box labs" that cost a couple hundred
dollars but can yield more than $750 worth of meth a day. Ingredients and
equipment are easy to get at local drug, grocery and hardware stores.

Small-scale cooks produce the drug primarily for their own use but also to
put money in their pockets.

Many recipes for home-made crank involve using highly caustic and toxic
chemicals to reprocess over-the-counter cold medications containing
ephedrine. The processes used in the homebrew meth labs give off flammable
or explosive fumes. The cost of making speed in box labs can include human
life: In January, two women perished when fumes from a basement meth lab on
South Lincoln Street ignited and trapped them in a crawl space.

In Colorado, the number of meth labs raided has nearly doubled every year
since 1999. Just four years ago, in 1998, only 31 labs were busted in the
state, but in 2001, the number had climbed to 452. Hunting down the meth
labs has severely strained law enforcement resources, even though the most
common illegal drugs in Colorado are marijuana and cocaine.

The dysfunctional human detritus that meth addiction produces is a powerful
argument to rebut those who view drug use as a victimless crime. One of
meth's most powerful attractions is that it produces a high that lasts
hours longer than cocaine. Crank addicts often feel aggressively smarter
than others and can be argumentative. Paranoia is rampant among meth cooks,
who sometimes booby-trap their own labs.

Dangerous weight loss and other adverse health effects accompany meth abuse
- - a once-robust biker withered away to 151 pounds and plunged into the
depths of the paranoid world of crank before finally getting busted and
cleaning up his act.

Meth - and getting enough to feed their habits - dominates the existence of
addicts, who will do almost anything to get the drug. Children are
neglected and frequently endangered by being kept in the same room as the
box labs.

It's clear to us that even if drugs were supplied to crank heads the way
some European governments provide narcotics for registered addicts, meth
addicts would still be just as badly broken, just as paranoid, just as
derelict in caring for their children.

The sad truth is, this scourge is going to get a lot worse before it
becomes bad enough for mainstream America to do something to reverse the
alarming spread of meth from the biker subculture to yuppified suburbia.