CRUDE HOME LABS CRANK UP CRYSTAL METH USE IN BAY STATE

Crystal meth, the highly addictive drug gripping the West Coast and patches
of rural America, is steadily creeping into the Bay State, bringing with it
crude labs, feverish sex parties and even fears of a supervirulent strain
of HIV, law enforcement officials say.

"It's coming this way," said State Police Lt. Dennis Brooks, who is
assigned to Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley's investigative
unit. "We're aggressively going after it, and we don't want it to take a
foothold in this region." This year alone, Middlesex County authorities
have uncovered three makeshift meth labs and seen crystal meth busts spike
from three in 2004 to 12 this year. After one of those busts, the Lower
Basin state police barracks in Cambridge were sanitized, and two state
troopers were sent for medical evaluations, when an arrested man claimed
to have a super-strain of HIV, Brooks said. The alarming HIV strain was
first identified in a heavy meth user in New York. Last week, police shut
down a dangerous meth lab in Lowell after finding iodine crystals, red
phosphorous, drug residue and instructions on how to manufacture meth in
a third-floor attic bedroom.

Owen O'Neill, 25, who allegedly ordered volatile chemicals on the Internet
and stored them in a refrigerator, was charged with making
methamphetamines. Crystal meth labs around the nation have been known to
explode, causing terrible blazes and inflicting horrific burns.

"This stuff is volatile if it's mixed improperly or something goes wrong,"
said Lowell Police Sgt. Detective Jim Trudel.

Across Massachusetts, white, Asian and gay men ages 18 to 35 have turned
to the drug, once called the "poor man's cocaine," attending hotel parties
advertised in code on the Internet to get high on crystal meth shipments
from New York City and the Southwest, law enforcement officials said.
Using recipes found on the Internet, meth cooks buy nonprescription cold
pills like Sudafed for its active ingredient, pseudoephedrine, a chemical
derivative of amphetamine. The ingredient is combined with chemicals like
iodine and anhydrous ammonia, then cooked over a high heat. When ingested,
the drug unleashes extra dopamine to the brain, which taps the pleasure
receptors and gives users an addictively euphoric high.

The battle against meth - also known as "crank" and "tina" - has already
hit drugstores, with places like CVS and Walgreens putting cold medicines
containing pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters. State Sen. Harriette
L. Chandler (D-Worcester) is also sponsoring a bill that would put strict
limits on how common cold medicines are distributed.

"This medication has been around a long time, and in those cities, towns
and states that it has left so much tragedy it's hard to get rid of,"
Chandler said. The drug's popularity among the gay community has also
sparked fears about a potential link between meth and the spread of HIV -
in part because meth is used to enhance sexual encounters.

Three men have been found to be infected with a drug-resistant form of
HIV, but the new cases haven't rapidly progressed into AIDS like the
initial case did. No such cases have been detected in Massachusetts, said
Kevin Cranston, director of the Department of Public Health's HIV/AIDS Bureau.