SPEED REGAINING POPULARITY IN S. TEXAS, OFFICIALS SAY

Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI Authorities say speed is becoming a popular drug again.

Law enforcement officials say they've seized 14 times as much
methamphetamine in South Texas this year as three years ago.

The reemergence of speed in the region is leading to thefts and
breakins as users support their habit, officials say.

Gary Leach, director of Palmer Drug Abuse Clinic, told the Corpus
Christi CallerTimes that methamphetamine almost ruined his life 20
years ago during the drug's last heyday.

Now the narcotic's comeback is evident at his clinic.

"We do see it more and more," Mr. Leach said. "The people who are on it
are skinny, strung out; they have open sores in their mouths. It's a
druginduced psychosis. After you use it, it begins to take its toll."

Methamphetamine also known as speed, ice, crystal and crank can be
made from mixing overthecounter cold treatments and diet pills with a
hodgepodge of other chemicals. The drug is completely synthetic. It
causes euphoria and heightened endurance. Users are known to become
violent and psychotic.

The chemicals that are used to manufacture speed break down the body's
organs and cause numerous physical ailments, officials say.

In 1994, South Texas law enforcement officers sent 260 grams (about 9.3
ounces) of methamphetamine to the Department of Public Safety controlled
substance laboratory for testing, according to DPS reports.

The amount has steadily increased through this year. As of Dec. 4, the
lab had tested 3,705 grams (8.25 pounds) from South Texas. It takes only
1/20th of a gram to get a user high, said Jim Dickson, field supervisor
with the TriCounty Narcotics Task Force.

Mr. Leach said that he was 13 the first time he tried meth in the late
1970s and that he was hooked for several years. By age 19, he was
emaciated, had contracted hepatitis and was urinating blood, he said.

"It is truly a terrible drug," he said. "I've seen it take beautiful
kids and destroy them. They have no idea what they are getting into."

Drug Enforcement Administration agents believe that heroin and
methamphetamine have surpassed crack cocaine as the drugs of choice in
Corpus Christi this year.

"Everyone had just assumed crack was the bigger epidemic," said Max
Pooley, resident agent in charge of the Corpus Christi office.

The popularity of methamphetamine can be seen throughout the community,
police say, in increased burglaries and forgeries.

A string of area mail thefts, involving thousands of pieces of mail,
also is blamed on methamphetamine users, U.S. Postal Inspector Mike
Kaiser said. No arrests have been made.

In a year, Corpus Christi's burglary rate rose about 14 percent, from
1,775 burglaries in the first half of 1996 to 2,027 during the same
period this year, according to FBI statistics.

Corpus Christi police Lt. Robert MacDonald, who is in charge of burglary
investigations, said more suspects are giving methamphetamine use as a
motive.

"They're not running together in an organized group," he said. "They
just happen to be criminals with a common interest. This is more
dangerous than cocaine or crack, and it's making a resurgence."