EX-USER, AGENTS TELL OF METH'S PERIL

They gather at a Senate caucus on drug control, set up by Iowa's Charles
Grassley.

"My drug use was a secret to most people, and I looked like a normal
teen-ager, no different than any one of your sons or daughters, students or
friends." -- Jaime Wood, 17, of Blairstown. Her father, Ronnie Wood, of
Moulton offered his support at the hearing.

Marion, Ia. - Her testimony was first - and perhaps the most poignant -
among a group of methamphetamine experts.

"When my use of crank got really bad, I gave up everything I could to get
my hands on the drug," Jaime Wood, 17, of Blairstown said Tuesday at a
hearing convened by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. "I gave up money,
my home, my family, my personal possessions and my self-respect."

With her mother by her side, Wood described how her relationship with her
family fell apart. She stole from them and lied to them. She even began
manufacturing the drug to support her habit.

But her family stuck by her. Sober now for five months - with plans for
college - she gave advice to parents dealing with drug-addicted children:
"Oh, gosh," she said, "don't give up on them."

And if parents suspect their children are addicted? "Get in the middle if
you can," she said. "Do anything you can to get them away from the friends
they're with. It's probably the hardest thing to do."

Grassley, a Republican, scheduled the hearing as chairman of the Senate
Caucus on International Narcotics Control. It was a tour de force on meth,
a highly addictive drug to which the brain becomes a slave, according to
Dr. Michael Abrams of Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines.

Teen-agers listened to parts of the three-hour hearing, held in the gym at
Linn-Mar Junior High School.

Documenting how drugs are not only a metro problem but a rural one and
rallying more people to become concerned about the effects of meth were
among the hearing's goals.

Another goal was to establish that the drug is being smuggled in from
Mexico, a point that is not acknowledged by the Mexican government,
Grassley said.

The resident agent-in-charge of the U.S. Customs Service in San Ysidro,
Calif., said trafficking occurs along well-established routes of marijuana,
cocaine and heroin.

Robert Tine brought a tire rim with a compartment in which smugglers had
hidden meth before welding it shut.

But Tine said agents face a dual threat. Not only is meth being smuggled
into the country but chemicals used to make it are also being smuggled into
Mexico from the United States.

Richard LaMere of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Cedar Rapids said
Mexican traffickers' dominance of the market is largely explained by the
fact that Mexican organized crime has access to large quantities of
ephedrine on the international market and regularly produces
"unprecedented" quantities of high-purity meth in "superlabs" in Mexico and
California.

Ken Carter, director of the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, said
authorities are having an impact on some major trafficking organizations.
But, he said, they are hampered by the extent of the meth problem and
limited resources - personnel and overtime costs.

"Without significant increases in resources and support, the DNE will be
unable to disrupt the flow of methamphetamine into Iowa and reduce the
negative impact methamphetamine trafficking is having on the citizens of
Iowa," he said.

Wood's mother also gave suggestions to parents, telling them to stay
involved with their children. "Know their friends, know what they're
doing, know where they're at," Debbie Wood said. "Don't give up on them.
Hang in there."

Dr. Michael Abrams of Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines uses a model
to explain meth's effects on the brain Tuesday during a hearing on
narcotics control in Marion.

Reporter Shirley Salemy can be reached at salemys@news.dmreg.com or (515)
284-8131.