POLICE TRY TO GET JUMP ON METHAMPHETAMINE

Not yet big locally, the drug is a growing nationwide problem. Limits are
sought for selling over-the-counter medicines containing a key ingredient.

You can't buy cold medicine in Oregon without showing a picture I.D.

If you try to buy four boxes of cold pills at a Wal-Mart anywhere in the
country, you will be told to put one back.

In some states, pharmacists may soon be treating Sudafed, Contac, and other
over-the-counter products like prescription medicines.

Those restrictions are part of the new war on drugs, now raging in a store
or pharmacy near you.

At the heart of it all is pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that is a basic
ingredient in 80 percent of all cold medicines and in some allergy
remedies. Illicit "cooks" extract it from tablets to make methamphetamine,
known as the poor man's cocaine.

While it's far down the list of Philadelphians' drugs of choice, meth is
prevalent in Western, Midwestern and Southern states. It will become a
bigger problem here soon, law enforcement officials predict, citing the
police seizure of nearly $1.8 million in methamphetamine in a Northeast
Philadelphia home last month.

So Philadelphia narcotics police are gearing up, just now learning to brief
local store owners about the need to manage the sale of products containing
pseudoephedrine. The Philadelphia office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency says it is conducting several investigations into the production and
distribution of crystal meth in the area.

"You Northeasterners are the last bastion that hasn't been hit yet," said
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent David Taylor of the joint Drug
Enforcement Administration/FBI drug-fighting group known as the El Paso
Intelligence Center. "But I hate to tell you: It's coming."

More addictive than crack and scarily efficient at eating away the human
brain, methamphetamine is a stimulant that lights up the central nervous
system. Also called speed, crank, crystal or ice, the drug can be smoked,
injected, swallowed or snorted.

Originally made from the ephedra plant and used in the late 1800s as a
decongestant, methamphetamine became a significant problem in the 1950s,
when truckers abused it to stay awake. People began injecting it in the
1960s, and over the last 15 years its use has developed into the most
dangerous drug epidemic ever seen in America, according to the DEA.

Admissions for treatment of meth addiction in the United States jumped 420
percent between 1992 and 2002, from 10 per 100,000 among the population
aged 12 and over, to 52 per 100,000, federal health figures show.

These days, meth is becoming popular with women looking to lose weight and
gain energy; with white, suburban youths who attend raves; and with gay men
who use the drug to enhance sex.

Addicts cynically describe methamphetamine as "the only cure" for crack
cocaine: Once they do meth, they abandon the crack pipe and never go back,
according to Glen Hanson, a senior adviser to the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, and the director of the Utah Addiction Center. Methamphetamine
offers a longer high than crack: six to 12 hours vs. less than one hour,
Hanson said.

"The downside is meth is a significant brain toxin," while cocaine is not,
Hanson said. Methamphetamine plays havoc with memory and systems that
identify consequences.

People become impulsive and violent.

The drug is also the roughest to kick, Taylor said. "I know people who've
beaten crack," he added. "I don't know anyone who's beaten meth."

Throughout the early 1990s, Mexican drug cartels flooded the West Coast
with methamphetamine, diverting pseudoephedrine from manufacturers abroad,
mostly in India and Southeast Asia, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the
Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association. Oregon is one of the states
hardest hit by methamphetamine.

Today, about 80 percent of all methamphetamine in the United States is
supplied by so-called super laboratories in Mexico and parts of the West
Coast, Bovett said.

Because 20 percent of American methamphetamine is homemade by so-called
mom-and-pop cooks who get pseudoephedrine from cold medicine, then make the
drug by following recipes posted on the Internet, state officials believe
they can control at least part of the drug trade.

The mom-and-pops usually aren't big-time distributors, generally making
enough only for themselves and their friends, officials say.

These days, a gram of meth sells for $70 to $100, compared with $100 a gram
for crack and powder cocaine, according to the Philadelphia police.

So caustic is the witch's brew used to create methamphetamine, entire
houses have exploded during drug preparation. Site cleanups can take up to
16 hours and cost $100,000, said Inspector Joe Sullivan, commanding officer
of the Philadelphia Police Department's Narcotics Division.

While methamphetamine has been a problem for years, police have only
recently begun to battle the scourge by limiting access to its main ingredient.

In October, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy ruled that all products containing
pseudoephedrine must be sold in limited quantities only in licensed
pharmacies or drug outlets; that they must be stored behind the counter,
like prescription drugs; and that they cannot be sold to anybody without
photo identification.

A similar law took effect last month in Illinois. Oklahoma enforces
identical measures, with the added stipulation that anyone who buys
products containing pseudoephedrine must sign a log kept in the pharmacy.

And in Oklahoma, you need a doctor's prescription to buy regular
over-the-counter cold medicine if you don't have a picture identification.

There has been a federal law on the books since 2003 limiting the sale of
products containing pseudoephedrine. But the law has been mostly ignored,
and state laws are far stricter, said Blake Rice, president of the pharmacy
board in Oregon.

In all, 27 states are considering legislation similar to Oklahoma's to
regulate cold-medicine purchases. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are
not among them.

Taylor said he has seen evidence that methamphetamine labs are closing up
in Oklahoma. Some people are skeptical, however.

"I don't know how limiting the sale of cold medicine in one pharmacy stops
you from buying it from the pharmacy next door," said Cindy Fitzpatrick,
spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, which is not involved in
limiting the sale of over-the-counter drugs.

While Mary Ann Wagner, vice president of pharmacy regulatory affairs for
the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, supports limiting medicine
sales, she does see another problem.

"Consumers won't have the luxury of choosing from a wide variety of
products if the medicines are kept behind the pharmacist," she said.
"There's just not room behind the counters."

Costco, Rite-Aid and Walgreens, along with Wal-Mart, have agreed to limit
cold-medicine sales throughout the nation.

Not many people in the Philadelphia area are aware of pseudoephedrine
limitations and the problems that methamphetamine spawns, because the drug
isn't big here.

Just 0.6 percent of men arrested in Philadelphia in 2003 tested positive
for methamphetamine use, according to the Office of National Drug Control
Policy. Meanwhile, 45.8 percent of the arrested men tested positive for
marijuana use, and 30.3 percent tested positive for cocaine. In comparison,
28.7 percent of men arrested in Los Angeles tested positive for
methamphetamine in 2003.

During the late 1970s, Philadelphia was a major center of a less pure type
of methamphetamine known as P2P, Sullivan said. Government crackdown on P2P
ingredients helped curtail its spread.

But there are indications that the newer, purer meth may be moving east.

The El Paso center tracks three areas of methamphetamine activity: the
number of meth labs discovered, the number of dump sites of meth
by-products found, and the number of seizures of meth-making equipment.
These are called methamphetamine incidents.

In 2002, Pennsylvania had 29 incidents. A year later, there were 62. And
last year, there were 96 incidents, including 55 labs discovered. Most of
those were in rural areas.

While the numbers don't approach the 2,285 incidents in Missouri last year,
they reflect a growing threat, Taylor said.

To compare, there were two labs found in New Jersey last year, and three in
Delaware.

The big meth seizure in Northeast Philadelphia "vindicates what I've been
predicting," Sullivan said.

He added, however, that "the majority of methamphetamine now in
Philadelphia is shipped from Phoenix and Southern California by Federal
Express."

To avoid problems before they start, Sullivan will soon be talking to
owners of small, local convenience stores and markets who may be ignorant
of the medicine-meth connection.

"The little stores is where the challenge will be in Philadelphia,"
Sullivan said. "But we're preparing an outreach program to educate them.

"I firmly believe more labs are coming. It's only a matter of time."