METH HAS AFFECTED 8 OUT OF 10 PEOPLE IN THIS RURAL COMMUNITY

BEULAH, Ala. - 'Cranktown'

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.

Many of its citizens work in Opelika, Auburn, Columbus and Valley, Ala.

They 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.

But 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. (In 1999
when Lee County law enforcement was beginning the meth fight,
methamphetamine arrest and case figures were not kept.)

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 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.

Huge Impact

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. She
sells food and gas.

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.

"It was weird," Mixon said. "It had tubes sticking out and looked
like part of an aquarium. I called the detectives. It went from there
to an every night thing. It was like it was at my front door all the time."

She began 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."

Destroying Lives

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

He said you can't underestimate the damage the drug has done to the community.

"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."

The Beulah methamphetamine problem hits people of all ages.

Talk to Mixon's 10-year-old granddaughter, Chelsea. The little girl's
sweet smile quickly fades when she's asked about her mother.

With Mixon -- a woman she calls "Nanna" -- at her side, Chelsea
talked recently about her mother's drug problem.

The following is an exchangebetween Chelsea and a reporter:

Why Do You Live With Your Grandmother?

"Because my mom is on drugs. She doesn't know I know. She thinks it's
a secret."

What Are Drugs?

"She is taking medicine when she is not sick."

How Do You Know?

"A bunch of times she will go into the bathroom with a piece of
aluminium and a straw."

Chelsea has a younger sister who is being raised by the girls' father.

Mixon took her grandchildren to see their mother in prison. The kids
were strip-searched before they could go in.

"Now, you want your heart ripped out and thrown on the floor, you go
through that," Mixon said.

Mixon sees her daughter almost daily when she comes into the store
for food. She knows her daughter, now 31, hasn't beaten meth.

She almost wishes she would get caught.

"I had rather see her in prison than see here out here killing
herself," Mixon said.

The Lasting Impact

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."

Wilson and others say you can feel the effects of meth on Beulah
daily despite the fact that the problem has gotten better in recent years.

"You can pick up the (Opelika-Auburn News) and see the list of police
articles -- burglaries and thefts," Wilson said. "They are rampant in
this area. The addict will do anything to be able to buy it. The
people who make it would do anything to get the necessary ingredients
to make it."

Everything from lawn trimmers to boat motors have come up missing.
Though it is not easy to directly connect the thefts, Jackson, the
Lee County detective, said it is not a stretch to do so.

"Logic says they are doing it to support a habit and get the items to
produce the drug," Jackson said. "They would take the items to get
the pills, the gas or whatever."

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.

Mixon, too, believes the problem is getting a little better.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, we're at a 6 right now," she said. "In 1999,
we were at a 10."

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

But Jackson 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."