CONFERENCE TARGETS EASILY MADE DRUG

Methamphetamine Becoming Popular In El Paso

Hoping to prevent a drug crisis of potentially "epidemic" proportions,
El Paso law enforcement and health officials met Friday at a Drug
Enforcement Administration conference to discuss the dangers of
methamphetamine.

The drug, as cheap and easy to make as it is addictive and powerful,
has been a widespread problem in other parts of the United States for
years.

But though methamphetamine use and production have not reached similar
levels in El Paso, officials said, there are signs that use of the
drug is on the rise.

"This is something we need to look at very closely," said Laura Chin,
a chemical dependency counselor with West Texas Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse. "It's going to turn into an epidemic problem here in
El Paso. We're seeing more and more meth users."

Chin and law enforcement representatives did not have numbers to
compare methamphetamine seizures and use in previous years.

But DEA agents said there has been an increase both in the makeshift
labs used to create the drug and in arrests for shoplifting of Sudafed
and other materials used to make methamphetamine.

"We've seen an increase in clandestine labs all over the city," said
DEA Special Agent Robert Johnson. "These are made with things you have
in your house. There's not a large investment to get the stuff they
need to put together a lab."

A simple recipe, combined with the drug's potency -- the high can last
10 hours -- make methamphetamine attractive to El Paso drug users,
officials said.

Methamphetamine production also presents dangers, Johnson said.
Amateur chemists often combine materials that are highly explosive or
can create undetectable and lethal vapors when mixed.

Many of the labs are hastily arranged in apartments and motel rooms,
and the inadvertent side effects can easily kill unknowing neighbors,
he said.

Despite those risks, methamphetamine's profitability and highly
addictive quality continue to boost its popularity among dealers and
users.

"I can't emphasize how much this drug has a potential for addiction,"
Chin said. "It's the most addictive drug out there."