Series: Meth In The Mother Lode (Part 1a)

Once considered a drug problem largely isolated to California's Central
Valley, methamphetamine manufacturing and use has grown to epidemic
proportions in the Mother Lode. The reasons are varied, but there is a
common thread:the drug is highly addictive and relatively easy to make. The
hardware comes from kitchens, the chemicals from supermarkets or drug
stores and the recipes are readily available. Union Democrat reporters Mike
Morris and Amy Lindblom for the past year tracked the methamphetamine boom
in the Mother Lode. Their findings are presented here, a three-part series
beginning today and concluding Friday: Meth in the Mother Lode.

METH: AN EASY BUT DANGEROUS LODE FIND

Twenty bucks and a few minutes is all it takes to score some meth in the
Mother Lode.

Methamphetamine has been a foothills epidemic for years: causing crime,
broken families and added strain on nearly every agency in local government.

But despite millions of dollars spent combating the drug and treating
addicts, meth remains a growing problem.

"We have a war on meth going on here. It's ridiculous," said Deni Keiser, a
substance abuse counselor for Calaveras County's Drug Court.

Meth is a central nervous system stimulant akin to adrenaline, said Dr.
Todd Stolp of the Tuolumne County Public Health Department.

Meth - also called crank, speed, crystal or powder - delivers an intense
rush, giving many who use it newfound energy.

Users often stay awake for days, becoming aggressive and, at times,
paranoid, before crashing into sleep.

The drug was developed about a century ago from its parent drug,
amphetamine, and was used originally in nasal decongestants and bronchial
inhalers, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

It became a popular recreational drug in the 1960s and has remained so for
decades. Its use has become increasingly common among truckers and
construction workers because the drug keeps users awake and increases
productivity.

Once nicknamed the "working man's cocaine," national drug analysts say meth
has spread across the country and social classes - from soccer moms in Bay
Area suburbs to revelers in New York City's club scene.

About a million people abuse meth in the United States, the federal
government estimates.

Doctors and cops in the Mother Lode say meth users are attracted to the
drug because of the euphoric high and pleasurable feeling it gives them.
Users smoke, snort, inject or eat it.

Most users buy meth from dealers, however, some make the drug themselves.
Ingredients - ranging from pseudoephedrine and hydrogen peroxide to iodine
tincture and white gas - can be purchased cheaply at local drug and
hardware stores.

Other ingredients can include muriatic acid, used for cleaning swimming
pools, and red phosphorus, taken from match boxes and then soaked in a
solvent such as camping fuel.

"That's why, when you go to a lab, you see 6,000 boxes of matches," said
Sheriff's Lt. Eddie Ballard, who worked seven years with the Calaveras
Narcotics Enforcement Unit.

In plain sight

Meth-making supplies, like coffee pots and turkey basters, are common
household products. And meth recipes can be found within seconds on the
Internet.

The average methamphetamine cooking session lasts about seven hours, but
can take just minutes, Ballard said. There are many different ways of
making the drug, including a newer "Nazi" method that uses lithium batteries.

Cops say labs have been found virtually everywhere in the Mother Lode -
houses, apartments, backpacks, trailers, motels, cars, in the middle of the
woods, even underground.

Five years ago, a lab was found in a two-door car that was stopped near
Tuolumne Road. Three years later, 60 gallons of liquid meth was found
behind a vacant Copperopolis home. And just this year, a man and a naked
woman were caught making meth in a cave near Jackass Hill Road.

Meth dealers may also be hidden in plain sight.

Last December, Tuolumne narcotics investigators arrested two different
people suspected of selling meth near two different schools.

A 58-year-old Sonora man was arrested 100 yards from Sonora High School
when narcotics investigators found hallucinogenic mushrooms and an ounce of
crystal meth prepackaged in small plastic bags in his apartment bedroom.

The man's neighbors told investigators teens frequently visited the man's
apartment or waited outside on the street for him to come out.

On a coffee table, next to pornographic magazines and videos and sex toys,
officers found a book with a list of the first names of people the man was
suspected of selling to.

Just days after that bust, an unemployed bartender was arrested at his home
two blocks away from Jamestown Elementary School, where his daughter
attended the fifth grade.

The man had less than a quarter-gram of meth in his pocket but inside his
bedroom, underneath a television cabinet, investigators found a scale and
eight small bags filled with meth.

The bags were marked with "T" for teener, "H" for half gram and "8" for an
eight ball.

Before the man was taken to jail, narcotics officers let him call a friend
who could intercept his daughter at school before she walked home and saw
him in handcuffs.

Police also find meth in assorted and sometimes shocking hiding places: in
plastic baggies, breath mint tins, flashlights, makeup bags, fake guns,
syringes, ashtrays, gloves, cigarette packages, film canisters, light
bulbs, air freshener bottles, cell phones, socks, shoes, underwear, bras
and inside of mouths or rectums.

"It's usually in their pants though, but the pants aren't theirs. They
found the pants or they borrowed the pants. That's the standard answer they
give," said Tuolumne County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Oliver.

Money, money, money

Regardless of where it's made or sold, the drug turns a big profit.

"As long as there is a demand there will be a supply because there's money
to be made," Tuolumne County Sheriff's Lt. George Ruckman said.

For about $50, a person can buy the ingredients to make an ounce of meth -
in powder or rock form, Ballard said. That ounce, in turn, will sell for
$700 on the street.

Meth is usually sold in quarter grams, costing about $20 each. A close
second in sales would be a "teener," or a 16th of an ounce, at $70.

To take the cooking process one, hour-long step further, manufacturers can
turn the powder form of meth into the "ice" or "crystal" form.

Crystal meth, which usually sells for about $1,000 an ounce, costs more
because addicts can use less and stay higher longer, said Sgt. Jim Mele of
the Tuolumne Narcotics Team.

On the run

In some cases, users don't eat or sleep while indulging in a "run," using
the drug every couple of hours until the person runs out of it or is too
disorganized to continue.

A run usually lasts a few days to a week.

The longest run Ballard knows of was an Arnold man who supposedly stayed up
for 33 days straight. Mele said he'd heard of a Tuolumne County woman who
went on a 22-day run.

The body shuts down after a run, Ballard said, adding that users can't be
woken because they're in a comatose-like state.

Meth users on a run can also become delusional and psychotic - the symptoms
even mimicking schizophrenia, according to Dr. Thomas Haspel, medical
director and staff psychiatrist for Calaveras County's Behavioral Health
Services.

"It's becoming more and more clear that meth is very toxic to the neurons
in the brain," he said last week, referencing recent research.

Haspel's patients have told him that while on meth they believed bugs were
crawling under their skin, that the FBI was after them and that people had
piped thoughts into their brains through signals implanted in them.

Prolonged use of methamphetamine can also constrict blood vessels in the
skin, causing ulcers to form on the skin's surface.

"It's an easy drug to get addicted to because it's pleasurable at the
beginning," Haspel said.

Ballard - who has interviewed hundreds of meth users to better educate
himself on the drug - says he wants to understand the lure of meth so he
can help users stop.

"This drug takes over everything," he said. "It's a mess."