SLEEPY TOWN GRIPPED BY METH

"Cranktown USA' Fighting Back

BEULAH, Ala. - No one can tell you exactly where Beulah starts and
where it ends.

In the northeast corner of Lee County, its tangled roads stretch from
west of Beulah High School to the backwaters of Lake Harding.

Its residents live on farms and in lake cabins. Some people have lived
here all their lives. Others have recently moved here to take
advantage of Beulah's rolling meadows and hidden sloughs.

Unless you looked at the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, you
wouldn't know that nearly 50,000 people live within 10 miles of the
high school.

The average working person makes slightly less than $20,000. The
average household income is slightly less than $40,000, according to
2003 census estimates. Nearly 29 percent of the people 25 years old
and older do not have a high school diploma.

Beneath the placid surface of this rural community lies a dark
secret.

For the past seven years, a growing drug problem has made this the
unofficial methamphetamine capital of the Chattahoochee Valley.

Welcome to "Cranktown, USA."

The drug -- often called crank, among other things -- has been the
target of intense investigation by a number of law enforcement
agencies, including the Lee County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

By one man's count, nearly 60 residents from this area have gone to
prison on methamphetamine charges. Last year, the Lee County Sheriff's
Office made 104 methamphetamine cases ranging from possession to
manufacturing.

About 40 percent of those cases were in Beulah, estimates Lee County
Sheriff's Capt. Van Jackson.

Bill Bryan, the pastor of The Bridge Assembly of God church, has been
there 14 years. He calls meth "a weapon in the enemy's hand."

"It has economically ruined families," Bryan said. "It has created
distrust within families. They don't know who they can trust within
their own families."

The Columbus(GA) Ledger-Enquirer interviewed more than a dozen people
- -- including law enforcement officials, methamphetamine users and
family members impacted by the drug.

A sobering reality emerged: The drug has touched eight out of 10
people living here. It has destroyed users, wrecked families and
sapped the spirit of this community.

People Crumbling Apart

Delinda Mixon is a 48-year-old grandmother. She is raising two kids
because their mothers chose meth over family.

Mixon's 31-year-old daughter has served time in an Alabama prison for
a meth-related conviction. Her daughter is out of prison now, living
in Beulah. But Mixon has had custody of her 10-year-old granddaughter
for eight years.

Two months ago she took in a 4-year-old girl from one of her friends
when the child was faced with being put in foster care because the
young girl's mother was involved with a man using methamphetamine.

Mixon owns Anna's Way, the largest convenience store in Beulah. Two of
her brothers have broken into her store and stolen cash to support
their meth habits, Mixon said.

Mixon bought her store in 1999. By 2000 she started seeing a change in
the community and her customers. She called the Lee County Sheriff's
Office when she found a portable meth lab in the trash beside her business.

She noticed she was selling a lot of cold tablets containing
pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in cooking meth.

She didn't know it was being used to make illegal drugs.

"I thought everybody in East Alabama had a cold," she
said.

Today Mixon, who no longer sells pseudoephedrine products, can point
out the people who are using the drug.

"They have an unusual skin color," Mixon said. "It looks almost like
they were embalmed -- washed out, flushed out. They smell like
mayonnaise. Their hands age -- almost like arthritis. They have
cracked teeth. They start crumbling apart like chalk."

But it is the attitude that sticks out.

It's " 'To hell with the world,' " Mixon said.

Others have seen the personality changes, too.

Dennis Wilson is 44 and has lived in Beulah all his life. He and his
wife are raising his stepdaughter's 4-year-old girl and 1-year-old
boy. The children's mother has a methamphetamine problem.

"It alters the mind," Wilson said. "There is no doubt in my mind, my
stepdaughter loves her children. But she knows that her mother and I
won't let the children go without. We have offered her rehab. She
comes up with a thousand different reasons not to. You can't make
someone go through it."

People here often wonder why the methamphetamine problem reaches so
deep into the social fabric of the community.

"I have heard it called Cranktown," Bryan said. "Why is it here? I
don't know. It could be because of the lack of anything to do. Maybe
the church has not offered enough to do as an alternative. At some
point, the church has to become effective enough that there is no need
for drug dealers to be in the area."

Some Improvement Seen

Sheriff's Capt. Jackson has worked methamphetamine cases in Beulah for
the better part of a decade.

"Anytime you have an area where using and abusing drugs becomes
commonplace, it affects the attitude of those not involved," Jackson
said. "It is not as safe. You have the perception that the bad people
are running the community. The drug infestation leads to other crimes.
It has destroyed a lot of people's lives that would have been strong
pillars of the community."

Some meth users and abusers are easily identifiable.

"The biggest impact of this to me is people lose their ambition," said
35-year-old Mechelle Mouriski, a lifelong Beulah resident.

"They have no care or drive. They live for the moment with no vision
for the future. They can't keep a job. Drive down through here on a
Friday night, you'll see the chickenheads."

Like many of those in Beulah who have been hurt by this, Mixon can
tell when someone is struggling.

"When someone comes in here and says, 'I need a hug,' I know it is
real," Mixon said. "I am in it, too."

People here have reason to hope: The methamphetamine problem is not as
severe as it was five years ago.

"It is still a problem, but not as prevalent," Jackson
said.

The progress has been made through stricter law enforcement and more
awareness of the problem.

Jackson, however, knows some of the problem just relocated when his
office and the federal agents began making cases.

"They fled," Jackson said. "They went over to Chambers County. They
went to different areas of Lee County or into Columbus or LaGrange."

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METH SIGNALS:

Inability to sleep

Increased sensitivity to noise

Nervous physical activity, such as scratching irritability, dizziness
or confusioin

Extreme anorexia

Tremors or convulsions

Increased heart rate, blood pressure and risk of stroke

Presence of inhaling paraphernalia, such as razor blades, mirrors and
straws

Presence of injecting paraphernalia, such as syringes, heated spoons
or surgical tubing