A DRUG THAT STEALS SOULS

Meth is a threat to anyone near it

Anhydrous ammonia is a poison that can be fatal if inhaled. Hydrochloric
acid can steal your breath and make you cough.

Ether can make you vomit, give you a headache and knock you unconscious.

Yet a caldron of these chemicals - fertilizer, cleaning agents and an
anesthetic - and others just as dangerous are used to make methamphetamine.

Manufacturing meth triggers a seemingly never-ending cycle of danger. The
concoction is ripe for explosion when being cooked in neighborhood basements
or rural barns, inside small motel rooms and outdoors in the expanse of
state parks.

When users smoke, snort, inject or swallow the highly addictive stimulant -
known as crank, speed or ice, among other names - it changes the way their
brains work.

It can cause violent and psychotic behavior, memory loss, strokes and death.
A meth overdose, for instance, is suspected in the death in September of a
14-year-old Burlington girl.

Research has shown that prolonged exposure to relatively low levels of meth
damages nerve cells in animals' brains. Scientists suspect similar damage
occurs in humans and are conducting research to confirm it.

Dr. Michael Abrams, an expert on methamphetamine at Broadlawns Medical
Center in Des Moines, calls it "the most malignant drug on the planet."

"That makes it the most dangerous," Abrams said. "People can't stop with a
few hits."

Paranoid Reaction

Michael Joe Todden, who is being held in jail on charges of conspiring to
manufacture the drug and related crimes, recalls times of intense paranoia
from taking meth.

"You're thinking everyone is out to get you, everyone is a federal agent,"
Todden, 38, said in a telephone interview from jail in Black Hawk County.
"Pretty soon, you're sleeping with guns under the pillow. I was paranoid
because I kept thinking the feds were there and they were going to take my
supply of

methamphetamine."

Todden, who grew up in Des Moines, said the drug steals users' souls. "You
may never get back what you lose," he said. "Not just your sanity, but you
lose your place in time, in the world and everything."

The drug's highly addictive qualities coupled with most users' failure to
appreciate its dangers mean officials must reduce not only the production
and traffic of meth but also the demand for it, experts believe.

"I think it's the conclusion of everyone in the enforcement community and
the treatment community that this may be one of the most dangerous drugs
we've had to deal with," said Don Nickerson, U.S. attorney for the Southern
District of Iowa.

Clandestine Labs

The cycle of danger begins when people manufacture methamphetamine in
makeshift, clandestine labs. Federal officials estimate that 85 percent of
the meth in Iowa is originating in desert labs in Mexico and California and
is smuggled here. But so far this year, law officers have been sent to about
233 meth labs in Iowa, more than double what officials expected.

The point of the manufacturing process is to combine ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine - compounds found in over-the-counter cold and asthma
medications - with other chemicals to create the potent stimulant.

When local labs are discovered, it is the job of a team of narcotics agents,
state troopers, firefighters and chemists to dismantle them.

Even the gear these crew members wear boldly proclaims the danger of
chemicals involved. When they go into or near a lab, they wear clothing of
black, fire-retardant material to protect them from flash fires, according
to the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement. Then they put on
bright-yellow garb that protects them from vapors, spills and dust.

Danger continues when meth-makers dispose of the hazardous byproducts from
the drug. There's no stopping innocent passers-by from poking around these
discarded remains and being burned, blinded or worse.

Every pound of methamphetamine manufactured leaves behind 5 to 6 pounds of
toxic waste, said Ken Carter, director of the Division of Narcotics
Enforcement.

"We joke about glowing in the dark because we've been around this stuff so
much - the castoff, the waste product," Carter said.

Trace amounts of these dangerous chemicals used in meth manufacturing can be
found in the drug itself, authorities say.

Also, because meth can be made with readily available, inexpensive
materials, there is a lot of variation in the process and chemicals used,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That means the final
product sold as meth may instead be a chemical mixture with some of the
effects of stimulants.

These uncertainties about the drug's sources and makeup make it difficult to
determine how toxic it is and the health consequences it will bring, the
scientific institute says.

Perilous to Kids

Meth manufacturing puts unguarded, naive youngsters in harm's way. Children
living and playing in areas where their parents are making meth may be
inhaling and picking up much more than dust and dirt. They may be breathing
toxic fumes and ingesting dangerous lead deposits and other poisonous
byproducts.

In recent months, at least three infants and a toddler were found at Iowa
lab sites, and at least one of them was hospitalized with respiratory
distress. Further, children born to meth-addicted women are at risk for a
series of health and behavioral problems.

Dr. Rizwan Shah, a pediatrician at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines,
cares for chemically exposed children and is studying the harmful effects of
their contact with meth in the womb.

But Shah said youngsters exposed to the drug during its manufacture are not
being systematically evaluated.

"I think we need to be more diligent," she said. "When law enforcement goes
in and there are kids in the environment, we need to have a thorough medical
assessment done."

The psychological and physical hazards of the drug to people who use it are

serious. Scientists, treatment workers and court watchers observe that meth
users are unable to make reasonable decisions - for themselves or their
children. Parents on meth leave their kids here and there, sometimes
forgetting precisely where.

Certainly, behavioral and reasoning problems are seen in people who use
drugs other than meth. "But it seems that the methamphetamine users are
considerably more paranoid in their thinking than with other types of
controlled substances," said Polk County District Judge Linda Reade.

The judge has a front-row seat for witnessing the dangers of meth in her
courtroom and through her coordination of the Polk County drug court
program. She said she's never seen another drug cause the same kind of
physical effects as meth.

Like cocaine, methamphetamine is a psychostimulant, producing similar
effects that alter a user's mood. But the drugs are structurally different.
Meth lasts much longer, and more of it remains unchanged in the body.
Scientists believe meth, unlike cocaine, damages neurons in the user's brain
that contain two important substances, dopamine and serotonin, according to
the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Both substances are neurotransmitters, which nerve cells release in order to
send messages to each other. Meth use releases excess levels of dopamine
into areas of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure. That's what is
believed to cause the rush and high experienced by users.

Scientists have found prolonged exposure to meth can damage as much as 50
percent of the dopamine-producing nerve cells in the brains of animals, the
National Institute on Drug Abuse says.

Moreover, meth appears to damage nerve cells that contain serotonin,
according to the scientific institute. But much less is known about
serotonin, which affects functions such as emotions and sleep.

Link to Violence

Pharmacologist Jerry Frankenheim of the drug abuse institute suspects that
there is a direct pharmacological link between methamphetamine and violence
associated

with the drug.

"The drug actually causes it, as opposed to the economics of the drug trade"
being the reason for the violence, he said.

In Iowa, methamphetamine has been associated with at least three recent
murders.

Toby Michael, convicted earlier this year of stabbing to death a Dahl's
grocery store manager in Des Moines, argued during his trial that he was
drunk and high on methamphetamine at the time, which diminished his
reasoning capacity.

Christopher Kauffman and Jamie McMahan, stepbrothers from Oskaloosa, entered
a plea agreement earlier this year in which they admitted to two murders and
a bank robbery. In a videotaped confession, Kauffman described taking meth
in the days leading up to the crimes and not sleeping or eating for nearly a
week.

Prevention educators and others are focusing on the danger of
methamphetamine in public-awareness campaigns. Posters and public-service
announcements sponsored by the federal Midwest High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area are designed to educate youths about meth dangers have
taken a take-off-the-gloves tone.

Todden, the inmate, testifies to the truth in the harsh commercials. He
hopes the perils he experienced will serve as a warning to others.

"The only thing I'm hoping for," said Todden, "is physical health and mental
sanity and some kind of quality to my life."

Checked-by: Don Beck