METH IN IOWA: 'PEOPLE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S DOING ON OUT HERE'

The sheriff had been up all night, cleaning up after another bust of
another meth lab in another town. He'd spent the last 12 hours
dealing with the nastiest problem in Iowa and he was tired and disgusted.

"People have no idea what's going on out here," said John Coulter, the
Union County sheriff, a man who enjoyed law enforcement back in the
old days, back when it was a fun and rewarding job. "We've got a very
dangerous situation and I absolutely believe it's happening in every
county in the state."

Coulter was talking about a changing way of life in and around Iowa's
small towns. It's something that doesn't show up in the tourism
brochures with pretty pictures of windmills and red barns and town
squares.

Crime, Coulter says, is worse than it's ever been, and virtually all
of it is related to manufacture, sale and use of methamphetamine.

Ask any Iowa cop about it, and chances are what you hear will make you
queasy.

Neighborhoods are evacuated near meth labs because of the fear of an
explosion of ether or anhydrous, the chemicals used in making the
drug. Kids are involved, starting in middle school, and parents don't
seem to be paying attention.

Nine meth labs have been shut down since in July in Union County -
three in one 10-day period - and Coulter knows he's catching only a
fraction of those who are cooking the illegal drug in their garages
and kitchens.

But it goes beyond a story about meth. It's about a changing way of
life in Iowa, and Coulter has watched it happen in the 13 years he's
been sheriff. When he took office in 1985, rural Iowa law enforcement
officers worried about pretty much the same things cops dealt with a
generation earlier.

"We handled the drunks and the reckless drivers and the domestic abuse
cases. It was rewarding work," said the 44-year-old Coulter. "We
were doing some good. Today - I don't know."

Coulter remembers the days when he'd try to catch up with a lone car
thief. The last few weeks, he's been after a car-theft ring, people
who are stealing cars, setting them on fire and dumping them.

"That's the mentality now," said Coulter. "It's destructive and
dangerous. We're seeing more people who don't respect anything, and
it's all tied to drugs."

Don't believe it? Coulter says that 95 percent of all crime in Union
County is related to illegal drugs.

"It's connected to thefts, burglaries, domestic abuse, everything,"
said Coulter.

"When we catch people involved in meth, they're almost always armed -
handguns, rifles, shotguns, some even with military hardware - machine
guns. And this isn't just in Union County. It's all around Iowa."

Coulter knows that some people will claim the problem doesn't exist in
their communities, that there haven't been any meth lab arrests where
they live. Coulter has an answer.

"If there haven't been any arrests, people aren't doing their jobs.
You think it's happening in just the counties where there have been
arrests? Don't kid yourself."

He says the only way to stop it is to punish those responsible and
educate everybody else.

Coulter tells the owners of automotive supply stores that if somebody
buys a case of ether in August, it's not because it's too cold to
start his car. Report it to the police. If a farmer leaves an
anhydrous ammonia tank in a field overnight, he can count on somebody
tapping it and using it in a meth lab.

Iowans have been told if they smell ether or ammonia they should call
the police. It's working, but the meth makers are coming up with new
schemes.

"They're finding dirt roads out in the country where there's no
traffic," he said. "They're setting up in the middle of the road.
They cook it and run."

The ones buying the drugs are another story, something that should
make people squirm.

"We sit on a stakeout and watch who visits these places," said
Coulter. "We see kids from nice families and people who pass
themselves off as respectable."

It's not just the creeps and losers. It's also people who know better
- - people who are destroying their own communities.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady