NEW DRUG CRANK HITS WARP SPEED IN RURAL COUNTIES

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Authorities say they are concerned about a new illegal
drug called crank spreading statewide from several counties where it
already has become a problem.

" The potential for an epidemic is really there, " Wisconsin Attorney
General James Doyle said. " For these small counties, where there is not a
lot of cocaine, it' s the most significant problem."

Chippewa, Dane, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties are
reporting increased problems with the drug.

Crank is a form of methamphetamine. It is a stimulant that affects the
nervous system, quickly becomes addictive and causes reactions ranging from
anger and panic to hallucinations.

Its effects can last up to 24 hours compared with 20 minutes for crack
cocaine.

Manufacturers in clandestine laboratories use kitchen pans, jars and
ingredients from neighborhood stores to produce the substance that sells
for about $15 a dose. Eight such labs were found in Wisconsin in the past
six weeks.

" These are Beavis and Butthead labs and, more often than not, Beavis and
Butthead are in there making it, " state narcotics agent Tim Schultz said.

Ingredients can include car starter fluids, drain cleaners and paint removers.

This " poor man' s cocaine" or " rural crack" has spread east from
California, officials say, arriving in Wisconsin from Minnesota.

Crank' s parent drug is amphetamine, which was originally developed as a
nasal and bronchial decongestant.

Methamphetamine is smoked, eaten, inhaled and injected and goes by various
nicknames, including crystal, chalk and speed.

The number of labs raided by investigators in the Midwest rose from 44 in
1995 to more than 500 last year, Doyle said.

Methamphetamine cases submitted to the State Crime Laboratory are expected
to reach 125 this year, up from 77 in 1997.

Several suspects in Barron County were arrested this summer in Rice Lake,
burglarizing a store to get farm fertilizer for a crank recipe, Schultz said.

Equipment and ingredients were found in a garbage bin beside a Dunn County
restaurant.

Two college students in Madison with degrees in chemistry were sentenced
earlier this year for creating a laboratory with instructions found on the
Internet.

" The younger kids are starting to use it, " says Andre Lyons, 18, older
brother of a New Richmond girl who became a school dropout after using
crank. She was killed in car accident last summer.

" It is like candy in a candy store around here, " said Vickie Lyons, the
victim' s mother.

Methamphetamine has been in Wisconsin for several years but in a less
volatile form called " speed, " U.S. Attorney Peggy Lautenschlager said in
Madison.

Crank is far more broad-based, and creates violence, she said.

A Dunn County couple said in October their 14-year-old son threatened to
kill them after using methamphetamine.

State, federal and municipal authorities created a Wisconsin team approach
in February to methamphetamine.

"We are very concerned because this is a drug that creates monsters," Dunn
County District Attorney Jim Peterson said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski