REGION'S DRUG WOES GARNER ATTENTION

U.S. Lawmaker, Area Officials Focus On Methamphetamine

LENOIR - U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry realized the severity of the
methamphetamine problem in Western North Carolina last fall, when he paid a
visit to Caldwell County Sheriff Gary Clark.

They had a pleasant visit, McHenry said, but Clark had to cut the meeting
short: His deputies just found a meth lab.

The discovery led McHenry, R-N.C., to convene a meeting Thursday with law
enforcement officials from the 10 counties in his congressional district,
including Iredell, plus officials from the State Bureau of Investigation
and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

The 29-year-old first-term congressman from Gaston County said he wanted to
hear what he and other House members could do about meth, a cheap, easily
manufactured drug that's swarming into the state, especially the mountain
and Piedmont counties of Western North Carolina.

"The best way to develop good policies is to go to the experts," McHenry
said. "The information is frightening, absolutely frightening."

Meth -- also known as crank, ice or crystal -- is a powerful stimulant that
creates a prolonged, manic high. It can be made with inexpensive, legal
items found in any drugstore; it's highly addictive and causes serious
health risks not only for the user but for anyone exposed to the toxic
waste that the chemical "cooking" process produces.

On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert announced that eight men, most
from the Salisbury area, have been indicted on charges of possession with
intent to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and Ecstasy in Iredell and
Mecklenburg counties.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison, a
$2 million fine, or both, Shappert said.

Iredell County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Kevin Black said the biggest
problem for his office was illegal immigrants who occasionally haul
methamphetamine through the county, because of the Interstate 77-Interstate
40 interchange.

Meth has been a problem on the West Coast since the 1970s but only recently
has worked its way into the Carolinas, as evidenced by the number of
clandestine meth labs N.C. law enforcement has raided. Officers statewide
recorded nine busts in 1999. Last year, they made 322. They've already made
56 in less than two months this year.

Sheriffs and their representatives told McHenry they needed an old solution
to the new problem -- more money and people.

McHenry, vice chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal
Justice and Drug Policy, made no guarantees but said he'd try to work some
of the officials' suggestions into several pending anti-meth bills, such as:

Formation of a federal task force to focus exclusively on meth cases
nationwide.

Stiffer penalties for transporting the drug across state lines and
manufacturing it in homes where children are present.

Penalties for selling large quantities of meth-related chemicals and
equipment -- such as red phosphorus, anhydrous ammonia and chemical beakers
and flasks -- over the Internet.

Encouraging the Food and Drug Administration to change the classification
of medicine containing pseudoephedrine, one of the key components in meth,
so that it must be sold behind the counter instead of on the shelf.

States such as California and Oklahoma, which have wrestled with meth
problems for years, have seen dramatic drops in meth cases since they
restricted pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in a number of common
cold medicines, officials said.

Many of the officers who met with McHenry said restricting the sale of such
"precursor chemicals" may be the single most effective way to curb meth
production.

Meth on the Move

The number of methamphetamine busts in Iredell County and the state, by year:

IREDELL

2001: 12002: 3

2003: 2

2004: 1

2005 (to date): 0

STATE

2001: 34

2002: 98

2003: 177

2004: 322

2005 (to date): 56

Source: N.C. State Bureau of Investigation