NEW METH LABS MAKING HAZARDOUS HOME COOKS

Drug's Popularity Rising In Outlying Counties

Looking back, Don can see how drastically his life has changed over the
past decade.

He first began casually using methamphetamine when he was an all-district
linebacker at a Liberty County high school. Later, when he was a truck
driver, the drug helped him stay awake on the road.

But Don, who asked that his last name not be used, says it was only after
he found a recipe for methamphetamine on the Internet about three years ago
that he began using it heavily.

Before long, he says, he was an addict who sometimes went as much as nine
days without sleep and grew gaunt as he became more concerned with feeding
his habit than his body.

Now he is in the Liberty County Jail, awaiting trial on a charge of
manufacturing the drug.

Don, 28, is among a growing number of self-taught cooks in the Houston area
who have learned a new method for making methamphetamine by extracting it
from over-the-counter cold pills, law enforcement officials say.

Most of the needed ingredients can be found at neighborhood stores. Now,
someone who once needed several days and a fully equipped laboratory can
use pots and pans to extract the powerful stimulant in a just hours.

"One used to need a chemical background to make it," said special agent Tim
Binkley of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "Real chemicals and
real equipment like condensers, triple-neck flasks and rheostats were
required. It was a drawn-out process that took three or four days."

But that has changed in recent years as "mom and pop" drug labs have sprung
up in rural areas around Houston. Binkley said drug users learned that
"meth" could be made from common cold pills that contain ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine.

In a one-year period ending Oct. 1, 228 labs were raided in Texas, reports
the DEA's intelligence center in El Paso. That represents a 57 percent
increase from the previous year and a 100 percent increase from the year
before that, records show.

Many other seizures of clandestine labs go uncounted, particularly in
understaffed rural areas, because police agencies are not required to
report them, said DEA special agent Joe Long.

"We've had well over 200 labs busted in rural counties north and east of
Houston in the last year and a half alone," said Philip Cash, an
investigator with the Central East Texas Narcotics Task Force.

He said the group recently raided six labs in 48 hours. New labs have
particularly invaded Montgomery, Liberty and Trinity counties, narcotics
agents say.

"In a year and a half, we took down 17 labs in our small county of 14,000
people," said Trinity County Sheriff Brent Phillips. "Used to be, we
wouldn't see any. It was nonexistent until they got hold of this new method
using everyday household goods."

But task-force members believe more of the makeshift labs would be shut
down if police recognized them when they saw them.

That's why Montgomery County Sheriff Guy Williams recently held an
educational meeting for a dozen area law enforcement agencies.

Narcotics agents recommend checking trash bags. A bag used by a
methamphetamine producer would be filled with such things as stained coffee
filters and empty boxes or cans that had contained cold pills,
engine-starting fluid, drain cleaner, rock salt, lithium batteries, lantern
fuel and antifreeze.

These are among the ingredients in various recipes for making the drug and
would be suspicious if found in the same bag in large quantities, police say.

That's how alert officers spotted a lab in a Cleveland, Texas, motel room
Jan. 8 after the manager complained that the occupants had set off the
sprinkler system.

Besides two drenched suspects, police noticed rubber tubing, coffee filters
and a butane torch in the room. In a nearby trash bin they found empty
containers for household goods often used in making methamphetamine.

Investigators also suggest keeping track of people who regularly buy large
quantities of cold pills or other ingredients. In an effort to crack down
on illegal drug-making, Wal-Mart and some other stores have begun limiting
the number of cold-pill packages that one customer can buy.

"To get around this, (illegal) drug manufacturers are using friends to make
pill runs. Then they pool their resources and make a batch," said Jeff
Wells, a narcotics investigator with the Montgomery County Sheriff's
Department.

The only two ingredients that can be difficult to obtain are crystal
iodine, which is sold in feed stores to treat foot rot on horses, and red
phosphorous, which is sold by chemical supply houses for making flares and
fireworks, investigators say.

"These two items are easier to track because not many people buy these
items regularly," said Phillips, the Trinity County sheriff. Also, buyers
must show their driver's license and have their name recorded when they buy
the phosphorous.

Phillips said he is mystified as to why anyone would inject or swallow the
homemade drug.

"Besides the ephedrine, water and salt, about every other ingredient is
poison," he said. "Would you want to pour Drano or engine fluid into your
body?"

One Internet recipe bore this disclaimer: "Do not use this information. I
am not a chemist. ... The author makes no warranty, expressed or implied,
of the suitability of this information for any particular purpose."

The Internet recipes produce crystallized methamphetamine, resembling salt,
which is much stronger than the older version, authorities say.

"It gives you a more intense high," said Don. "When you come down from it,
you're tired and don't want to do anything. You're only good for a few
hours. So you need to do it again to finish out the day. Then it's hard to
stop."

Methamphetamine artificially stimulates the "reward center" in the brain,
leading to increased confidence in the drug and less pleasure in the normal
rewards of life, a U.S. Justice Department report states.

Calling methamphetamine "the fastest-growing drug threat in America today,"
the Justice Department points to a national survey that estimates 9.4
million Americans had tried methamphetamine in 1999, compared with 3.8
million in 1994.

Chronic use of the drug, authorities add, can permanently damage the lungs,
brain, liver and heart. It also is commonly associated with increased
nervousness, irritability, severe depression and paranoia.

Narcotics agents say the paranoia is most evident in the extreme lengths
the manufacturers take to avoid detection.

"I remember one (truck) camper being used as a lab that was wired to shock
anybody who came through the door," said Cash, the drug task-force
investigator.

Don says he installed lots of surveillance equipment at his lab.

"After a few days without sleep, you start seeing things," he said. "A
shadow from a tree can look like somebody."

Such labs also generate about six pounds of toxic waste for every pound of
methamphetamine they produce, said Wells, the Montgomery County narcotics
agent.

If it is concentrated enough, the phosphine gas produced when the red
phosphorous and iodine are heated can kill a person instantly, said Binkley
of the DEA.

This paints a scary picture for police, since those who make
methamphetamine usually have little or no training for working in labs.

The officers call the labs "mini-toxic-waste sites." They say potent
chemical sludges often are poured down drains and onto the ground, where
they can remain in the soil and water for years.

As a result, only three law enforcement officers in an eight-county area
surrounding Houston are certified to collect evidence and clean up these
labs. They always don respirators and protective clothing resembling space
suits before they enter a site.

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that
79 police officers, firefighters and medical technicians in the United
States were injured between 1996 and 1999 from fumes, fires and explosions
linked to these labs.

"We've had reports of dozens of fires from labs that burned up from
solvents and cooking methods in our area," said Cash, of the Central East
Texas task force.

As hard as it is to clean up a lab site, it's harder to get a
methamphetamine user off the drug.

"The recidivism is unreal," said Phillips. "They get out looking healthy,
and then they're back in custody again 10 days later for manufacturing. I
haven't seen anybody get off the new stuff yet."

Don hopes to be the exception.

"I don't want anything else to do with it anymore," he said. "I've been
clean five months. I know those cravings, and I may want to do it again,
but I know I can't."