Meth Threat Grows in Maryland

Police See Warning in Rising Number of Labs, Seek New
Laws

The first methamphetamine lab discovered by Anne Arundel County police
was found last summer in a garage behind a two-story house in a leafy,
middle-class Severna Park neighborhood. Soon after, another one was
found, in a Lothian trailer park. Weeks later, there was another: in a
shed near a ring where horseback riding was taught in
Millersville.

Labs for making the addictive drug - which has ravaged some Midwestern
and Western communities but has been relatively rare in Maryland -
have also been discovered in Caroline, Carroll, Cecil and Harford
counties. The nine labs uncovered in the state in 2005 represent the
most found by authorities in a single year. There were three in 2004.

And two more were found in recent weeks in Wheaton and Garrett
County.

"It is a significant jump," said Capt. Vernon J. Conaway, commander of
the state police drug division.

Conaway said he feared the numbers of users and labs would grow: "It's
never been a question of if; it's always been a question of when and
to what degree."

Although the number of people treated for meth addiction in Maryland
is low by national standards - 343 sought treatment last year, less
than 1 percent of all admissions to drug treatment programs in the
state - authorities are worried that the drug might be gaining a
foothold. When it has surfaced in other states, its use has spread
rapidly, leading to problems such as erratic behavior by addicts.

"We're hoping we don't see the same dramatic increase our neighbors
have," Conaway said.

In Pennsylvania and Virginia, the number of meth labs discovered by
authorities increased significantly between 2001 and 2005, according
to federal figures. And West Virginia lab seizures jumped from 17 in
2001 to 212 last year.

These spikes partly reflect greater attention from police, but drug
policy experts who've watched meth travel from state to state say
Maryland lawmakers should beware - and quickly fix laws that make the
state attractive to meth manufacturers.

For example, there are no state laws limiting access to the
ingredients to make meth - a loophole that police say three Indiana
young people tried to exploit last month. They purchased more than 100
boxes of pseudoephedrine-based cold and allergy medications in Anne
Arundel, police say, with the intent of reselling them at a $14,000
profit to meth cooks in their home state. Prosecutors found the trio
had not broken any Maryland laws, though such stockpiling is
prohibited in other states and under a federal law that took effect
yesterday.

Experts also say that criminal penalties in Maryland are easier on
meth cooks than on those who carry the drug into the state and that
there isn't a clear way to track meth labs.

"I think that labs that you are seeing are significant. It shows up
first with a few labs here and there, and then more and more and
more," said Richard Rawson, associate director of UCLA's Integrated
Substance Abuse Programs. "As far as I can tell, there is no invisible
barrier on the Maryland border that will keep meth out."

Powerful stimulant Meth is a stimulant that can be smoked, injected,
snorted or eaten. Users enjoy a euphoric feeling and often stay awake
for days on end. Then they crash and sleep for days. As doses get
higher, users become paranoid, aggressive and in some cases violent.
Meth use can lead to brain damage, seizures, strokes and death.

Although meth use in the U.S. dates to the 1930s and the drug was
outlawed in 1970, meth use soared in Western states in the 1990s,
according to a University of Maryland report last year. Users tend to
be low- and middle-income, mostly white, and from rural and suburban
areas, according to a federal study. Meth has surfaced in urban gay
communities.

Nationally, much of the drug is imported from "superlabs" in Mexico.
But, what sets meth apart from drugs common to this area (heroin,
cocaine) is that it can be cooked from readily available ingredients.
The most important is pseudoephedrine, found in over-the-counter cold
and allergy medications. Paint thinner, ether and matchbox strike
plates can also be used in making meth.

Cooks work from different recipes - the most dangerous one calls for
strips from lithium batteries. Those strips can combust when they get
wet or damp. Some retail chains - including Target and Wal-Mart -
voluntarily limited the amount of pseudoephedrine customers can
purchase. Wal-Mart also limits lithium battery sales per customer.

In states where the drug is more prevalent, social services systems
have buckled.

"When parents are on meth, that is their number-one priority - food
for the children is second," said Marvin Van Haaften, the drug policy
director for Iowa. In one Iowa county, Van Haaften said, 80 percent of
all foster care placement was due to parents having meth lab
convictions.

"Men feel like they're bulletproof and 10 feet tall," he said. "The
kids are running across busy highways and begging for food from
grocery stores while mom is asleep for three days."

The state had two labs identified by authorities in 1994, eight the
next year, 320 by 1998 and 1,500 labs in 2004.

"Meth just so quietly sneaks in," Van Haaften said. He was quick to
point out that alcohol, not meth, is the most abused drug in his
state. "But because [meth] just destroys lives it's brought fear into
the hearts of Iowans," he said. About 15 percent of people in
treatment programs in Iowa are being treated for meth.

Local drug experts point to Maryland's considerably lower numbers of
identified meth labs as evidence that the state has so far escaped the
drug.

"We haven't been as susceptible to the epidemics of stimulants that
the West has been, historically," said Tony Tommasello, an associate
professor with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. "I can't
explain it."

Erin Artigiani, a deputy director at the Center for Substance Abuse
Research at the University of Maryland, College Park, said other drugs
might be crowding out meth here. "Baltimore has such a history of
heroin and cocaine, it would be hard to get a foothold," she said. "A
lot of the way the drug moves is though word of mouth. So far in
Maryland I think we've been able to keep the word of mouth from spreading."

In Anne Arundel County, however, two of the three labs found last year
were connected by word of mouth, police said. Two men who ran the
first lab in Severna Park taught another man in Millersville how to
make the drug before they were locked up. The Severna Park pair
pleaded guilty this week to federal charges of conspiring to
distribute meth.

Police stress that they haven't seen an increase in meth on the
streets. "We're hitting the labs before they get going," said Ryan A.
Frashure, an Anne Arundel County narcotics detective.

Weak Md. laws But authorities are concerned about what they view as
Maryland's weak laws.

The three young people from Indiana - two are college students - chose
Maryland for their shopping spree after visiting an anti-drug group's
Web site that provides information about which states have laws
against buying ingredients for meth.

"They were entrepreneurs," said county Police Chief P. Thomas
Shanahan, at a news conference where police displayed the boxes of
medications and a detailed itinerary that included directions from one
store to the next.

In the region, only Maryland and Washington don't have their own laws
limiting the amount of pseudoephedrine-based medications that can be
bought at any one time. However, the new Combat Meth Act makes such
shopping sprees a federal crime.

Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee said he and
other prosecutors still want a state law: "That is a federal law, so
how is that going to work in helping states like us?"

Such legislation was killed this year. Del. Pauline H. Menes, a Prince
George's County Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee and
chairs a drug and alcohol abuse panel, said: "We didn't want to move
too fast and create too many programs feeling that we were too far
ahead of the curve. .. We're not going to close our eyes to it; the
question is how far should we go to get this under control. We felt
there was no need to rush into it."

A federal law that goes into effect in September will require
storeowners to keep some pseudoephedrine-based cold medications behind
the counter. The federal law also requires consumers to sign a log and
show an identification card before purchasing those medications. A
similar state regulation is being considered.

Authorities point to inconsistencies in state law: Those caught
bringing the drug into the state face up to 20 years in prison. But
those who cook meth in the state face a maximum of five years, even
though such labs are potentially explosive.

Officers who find meth labs must suit up in hazmat gear and test the
air in suspected labs before they can be dismantled. None of the
recently discovered labs in Maryland has exploded, but in Tennessee,
there were 46 explosions or fires in meth labs in 2003, according to a
federal study. And the creation of the drug yields toxic waste.

This year, the Maryland General Assembly killed legislation that would
have increased penalties for cooking the drug. "There is no outcry for
this," said Sen. Lisa A. Gladden, a Baltimore Democrat. "I've been
introducing meth legislation for the last three years, and we've been
having a hard time getting the attention of the committee."

State lawmakers are expected to approve a watered-down version of the
penalties bill, but it would merely require meth cooks to foot the
bill for cleaning up seized meth labs.

"It's a first step," Gladden said.

Also frustrating for law enforcement officers: there is no formal
mechanism for tracking meth labs discovered by police. Conaway, of the
state police, uses an Excel spreadsheet and relies on phone calls from
colleagues to keep a tally of busted meth labs. If state police aren't
involved, Conaway scans news reports.

"You don't know the nature of the problem if you don't have accurate
data about the problem," he said.

Tommasello, of the University of Maryland, noted that a recent federal
study showed that meth use in the country is leveling out.

But, he said, "We have to be aware that there is a problem looming
right around us and we could easily become caught up in an epidemic."