METH 101: EXPERTS GIVE BUSINESSPEOPLE LESSON ON THE DRUG

Use common sense.

That's the message officials tried to convey to McDowell's merchants
Tuesday during a methamphetamine forum aimed at educating businesspeople
and slowing down what one called a "phenomenon."

Authorities busted 322 labs across the state in 2004, up from 177 in 2003.
Of those dismantled statewide, they found 45 here last year, making
McDowell tops in North Carolina for the number of busts. Thus far, there
have been 23 in McDowell in 2005 and 100 across the state.

"(The growing meth-making epidemic) is unlike anything we've ever seen,"
said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose. "To combat the
problem, we're having to go to the suppliers. We're doing all we can."

But when Rose informed attendees that they have some responsibility and can
be prosecuted for knowingly distributing the ingredients to a drug cooker,
some of the businesspeople became agitated.

One asked how exactly she is supposed to know who is a cooker and who
isn't. Another said she has denied customers who tried to purchase some of
the ingredients, only to be followed home after work. Yet another
encouraged the newspaper to print a list of the ingredients used to make
meth. (At the request of the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, The
McDowell News obliged. The list is included with this story.)

"This is about public awareness, not pointing fingers," Rose told them.
"This is about education and pulling together as a community."

State and federal drug agents urged the merchants and clerks to use common
sense. For instance, they asked, why would anyone need to buy bottles upon
bottles of antifreeze in the middle of August? Who uses more than a couple
of boxes of pseudoephedrine for a cold? Who buys more than one bottle of
Red Devil lye at a time?

Agent Rick Hetzel, the SBI's clandestine lab coordinator for western North
Carolina, advised clerks and managers who have suspicions to keep a note of
what the person buys, get a tag number and turn the information over to
their police department or sheriff's office.

Hetzel conducted most of the forum Tuesday, which was attended by more than
75 businesspeople, law enforcement and emergency services personnel and
citizens.

He told the group that meth cookers must have pseudoephedrine products to
make the drug. It is the key ingredient. The agent said that one gram of
pseudoephedrine makes about one gram of meth.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has proposed legislation that, if passed, would
make it more difficult for people to buy the common cold medicines that
contain pseudoephedrine. They would be kept behind pharmacy counters and
shoppers would have to sign for the pills and show identification.
Officials at the forum urged local citizens to call or write to their
lawmakers to show their support of the proposal.

Hetzel said the number of busts in McDowell doesn't mean the county is more
overrun with the drug than other areas. It means local law enforcement
officers are doing their job.

"You've got a sheriff who's said they're not going to (make meth) here, and
you've got officers who have hit it hard," the agent stated. "All the
credit goes to them."

And their departments are basically getting nothing in return, he added.
With large cocaine or marijuana busts, they can confiscate money, cars and
even houses. With meth, there's usually no money and the houses and cars
are contaminated.

"It's a 100 percent money-out situation," he stated. "Thousands of dollars
are spent outside the cleanup."

Cleanup of a lab alone costs anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000, depending on
its size, according to Hetzel. Taxpayers foot most of the bill.

Rose said, in the case of a cooker who is sentenced to time in federal
prison, he is required to work. That money goes toward child support and
restitution. However, she added, she doesn't know of any case where victims
were fully compensated for the damage the drug causes.

The agent reminded participants that officers have found labs in houses,
backpacks, vehicles, garages, campers, sheds, and, of late, the most common
place, in motel rooms.

Hetzel threw out some other interesting facts about meth to the crowd:

* The drug is more addictive than heroin, he stated, and the rehabilitation
rate is only 6 percent.

* About $600 worth of chemicals makes $2,000 worth of meth.

"People are not selling the drug," Hetzel stated. "What we're seeing here
are user labs."

* A user lab produces approximately 11 pounds of meth a year. Those 11
pounds of the drug create 176.5 pounds of toxic waste.

* According to a survey, 60 percent of meth cookers learn to make the drug
from friends and family members, 18 percent from books, 11 percent are
self-taught, 7 percent in prison and 4 percent on the Internet.

* A cook teaches one person to make meth every 90 days.

* It's stronger than cocaine. Users can stay up four to eight days at a time.

* It can be injected, smoked, snorted or taken orally but most people
inject it.

* Users often have open sores on their bodies because the drug makes them
feel as if they have bugs in their skin. They are also excessively skinny
and shake tremendously.

* Officers find at least one weapon at every lab they bust.