METH LABS IN STATE DECREASING DRUG GETTING STRONGER

LENOIR - New laws and smarter law enforcement have for the first time
in five years slowed the proliferation of "mom and pop"
methamphetamine labs statewide, but the chairman of a House
subcommittee acknowledged it's caused an increased demand for a much
more potent strain of Mexican meth to replace it.

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform
Subcommittee of Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources,
made the statement during a field hearing on the impact of
methamphetamine addiction in northwestern North Carolina.

"As expected, as these 'mom and pop' or 'Nazi' labs are shut down,
the demand is being met by the crystal meth brought in mostly by
Mexican gangs," Souder told the gathering of about 100 Caldwell County
officials, citizens, and media from as far away as Charlotte and
Winston-Salem. The subcommittee is responsible for authorizing
legislation for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and its
programs along with oversight of U.S. government drug control efforts.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., joined Souder and Rep. Patrick
McHenry, R-N.C., in Lenoir Tuesday. McHenry's 10th district includes
Caldwell, Burke and Rutherford counties.

Caldwell, Burke and Rutherford sent their sheriffs to testify, along
with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and North Carolina's
State Bureau of Investigation.

John J. Emmerson, the DEA's Charlotte assistant agent in charge, told
the subcommittee the state had seen a "leveling off" last year in the
number of meth-lab discoveries.

"We'd anticipated 600 or more labs in 2005," Emmerson said, his
estimate supported by SBI figures, which showed meth lab seizures
roughly doubling with each succeeding year since 2002 .

With 2004's number set at 243, 600 labs would have fallen well within
expectations for 2005.

Instead, the number plateaued at 322. And if 2006 continues as it
began - law enforcement reports a 30 percent reduction compared to the
first three months of 2005 - it could see an even sharper decline in
the spread of so-called "mom and pop" labs.

Watauga County, which only two years ago led the state in such labs at
46, had uncovered only one through March 31, according to the SBI.
Home-cooked meth, however, had never accounted for more than a small
portion of the meth consumed overall. Estimates range from 10 to 20
percent, with the vast majority coming from super labs in California
and Mexico, so-called because of their capacity to produce at least 10
pounds of a highly pure drug in a day's time.

Small-time kitchen cooks produce a less potent form of the drug, often
no better than 45 to 50 percent pure.

The "ice" or "crystal meth" produced in super labs more often ranges
in purity from 80 to over 90 percent, making it, according to
Emmerson, a much more addictive drug.

"The methamphetamine - or ice - that comes from Mexican super labs is
very potent and leads our users to a new level of addiction,"
Rutherford County Sheriff C. Philip Byers told the subcommittee
Tuesday. Controlled by Mexican gangs whose supply lines and
distribution networks have been established through their decades-long
control of the marijuana and cocaine trades, crystal meth makes its
way to North Carolina through major hubs, such as Atlanta, before
filtering through Charlotte to the largely rural areas where most of
its users reside.

Souder pointed to independent truckers as another source of the drug's
transport from the West Coast and Mexico.

Anti-meth provisions in the recently passed Patriot Act will impose
restrictions nationwide on accessibility of cold and allergy remedies
whose active ingredient - ephedrine and pseudoephedrine - is a vital
ingredient in the recipes of small-time meth cooks.

The new restrictions close holes in the enforcement network which
allowed meth cooks in southern counties, such as Rutherford, Burke and
Buncombe, to obtain the chemicals for home-cooked meth in South
Carolina, whose lawmakers have yet to enact the same restrictions as
North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. "Our addicts are just driving
15 minutes and getting the products they need," Rutherford's Sheriff
Byers told the subcommittee. "Until South Carolina steps forward, or
until the national law takes effect, our folks will just go there to
get what they need."