METH USE EXPECTED TO SKYROCKET IN INDIANA

Montgomery County Sheriff Dennis Rice didn't realize what he had on his
hands when he first came across a clandestine methamphetamine lab. But
within a year, county police had seized more than 20 labs. And authorities
tracked down a man from Missouri, who they believe brought his recipe for
producing meth to this west-central Indiana county.

Then police found someone who learned how to make meth from the man from
Missouri. And someone that person had taught. And someone that person had told.

"I said right now it's just Montgomery County's problem, but it's going to
be a state problem in a short period of time," Rice said.

He is more right than he ever feared.

After studying the drug's popularity in states such as Missouri, state
police and drug experts are predicting an explosion of methamphetamine labs
in Indiana over the next year, pushing what's been a growing problem into
what they fear will be a full-scale epidemic.

The number of labs processed by the Indiana State Police forensics
laboratory has doubled every year since 1994, except 1999, when they more
than tripled to 127 labs.

"The drug is so highly addictive, and it's becoming such a popular drug,"
Rice said. "Everything people need to make it is right here at home."

First synthesized by a Japanese scientist in 1919, methamphetamine was used
during the 1930s in various forms to treat schizophrenia, narcolepsy,
Parkinson's disease and depression.

During World War II, Japanese and German military troops were given the
drug to keep them alert, and in the 1950s some U.S. doctors prescribed
forms of the drug to increase energy levels in patients.

During the 1960s, nonmedical use of the drug began to increase in the
United States, and outlaw motorcycle gangs became a primary producer of
meth, also known as crank, ice and glass.

Over the last decade, the drug has moved steadily eastward through
Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, where state police seized their first
clandestine methamphetamine lab in 1992.

After small increases through 1995, Missouri and federal authorities seized
250 labs in 1996 and more than 900 last year. They expect to exceed the
1998 level this year.

Indiana authorities are forecasting the same pattern here. In 1994, state
police seized just three labs, and that number increased slightly from 1995
to 1998, before taking off in 1999.

"There's no reason for it to slack off," said Eric Lawrence, director of
the forensic analysis division of the Indiana State Police crime lab.

"What's the downside of it if you're someone who's into abusing drugs? It's
going to continue to increase until you can control some of the chemicals.
And how are you going to do that because they're over the counter stuff?"

What makes meth so difficult to stop is that almost every ingredient can be
bought over the counter and is found in common goods like cold medicines
and batteries.

"It's not cocaine that we're trying to stop at the border from South
America. This is stuff that's made at home with American-made products
bought at your local hardware store," said Mike Boeger, an investigator
with the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

In Indiana, meth producers overwhelmingly favor the "Nazi method" for
producing the drug. The relatively simple process involves almost all
over-the-counter ingredients available in any drug store, a jar, a
two-liter soda bottle, a tube and a coffee filter.

Producers extract ephedrine from cold medication, add sulfuric acid from
drain cleaners, lithium from batteries, anhydrous ammonia -- which
producers can be very efficient in producing the drug.

"This Nazi method is pretty idiot-proof," Lawrence said. "They throw this
stuff together, and they're going to get some product.

"You can make a quarter of a pound in five hours. At $100 a gram, that's
pretty good money."

The Indiana Legislature made its first move to address methamphetamine
during the 1999 session, when it approved a bill making it a D felony for
anyone to possess two or more meth ingredients with the intent to produce
the drug.

Despite the 47-0 vote for the bill, Sen. Charles "Bud" Meeks, one of the
sponsors, said some legislators and state agencies have been slow to
realize the potential of meth because it's still concentrated mostly in
rural areas and Southern Indiana.

"They're just not seeing the danger that this thing is on the horizon. It's
the drug of the 21st century," said Meeks, R-Leo, a former Allen County
Sheriff. "We cannot be passive on this thing. We have to be proactive and
get stated on it."

In Missouri, authorities are battling the drug with a massive education
campaign and stiffer penalties for meth users and producers.

Store chains, including Wal-Mart, have agreed to limit their sale of
certain meth ingredients like cold medicine and tip off police when
customers continually buy large amounts of those products.

Boeger said the Missouri Legislature passed an omnibus meth bill in 1998
that stiffened several offenses associated with meth from misdemeanors to
felonies, increased sentences, made manufacturing the drug a more serious
crime and increased funding to train police in handling and investigating
meth cases.

"If the state of Indiana doesn't start controlling chemicals like you do
drugs, this thing of going home and making their own drugs is going to hit
you next. Meth is just one of the drugs they're making at home now," Boeger
said.

So far, the meth labs seized by police in Indiana are confined to an area
south of Interstate 70 and west of I-65 in Southwestern Indiana,
particularly along a corridor from Evansville to Bloomington, Lawrence said.

But state police have found their first labs in Angola and Elkhart,
Lawrence said.

In Montgomery County, Rice said he hasn't seen any signs of the drug
dropping off.

"I don't perceive this going away," Rice said. "The drug's become too
popular. I think it's here to stay, so what started out being a rather new
thing to us is becoming routine."