The other week I received a drug call at a local hotel. Officer McNeal and
I, along with our two recruits, responded to the location and met with the
manager who had called. He explained to us that they had an array of
unusual stenches emanating from a room on the ground floor of the hotel.
After observing strange behavior from the room occupants and receiving
complaints from other hotel guests about the odors he wisely chose to call us.

After speaking with the manager, we headed off down the hall to investigate
what we all presumed would amount to someone smoking marijuana in a hotel
room. And, as we got closer to the room in question, we all confirmed that
suspicion as the hallway was definitely reeking with the odor of marijuana.
As we approached the room, three of its occupants were exiting into the
hallway, further enhancing the already marijuana-laden atmosphere settling
there. If the hotel had smelled that strongly for the two days that they
had been staying there, I wondered why no one had called us sooner.

As soon as the individuals came out, they looked up and saw us coming
toward them as that all-too-familiar look of guilt set in across their
faces. While two of them were too far away from the room to make an escape,
the third person shot back into the room like a lightning bolt. Based on a
strong smell of narcotics coming from their clothing, McNeal and his
recruit detained the first two subjects in the hall, and my recruit and I
headed for the hotel room. As we got closer to it, the odors kept
intensifying, and I could hear the door locks hastily latching.

We reached the room door and heard a crashing sound coming from inside the
room. As it sounded like a window breaking I headed for the exit door at
the end of the hallway and ran out into the parking lot. As I turned the
corner I was met by the sight of a screen hanging from the outside window
frame and two males running across the parking lot wearing nothing but
t-shirts and jeans. As it turned out, it was a solid 9 degrees that evening.

Other police units then began arriving, and the duo was sent running around
in circles. Being from out of town, they were completely ignorant to their
surroundings, totally out of their element and were thus quickly run down
and brought back to the scene. A small amount of dope was found on one of
the guys - a mild precursor to the rest of the evening's findings.

With everyone and everything secured, we applied for a search warrant and
executed it a short time later. What followed next surprised all of us.
McNeal began searching the bedroom of the hotel suite and quickly uncovered
three bags of pure methamphetamine. The meth was accompanied by a cutting
agent (something that, when mixed with the drug, lessens its purity). Had
the drug already been cut it would have been right at a kilogram in weight.
But, even in its purest form, the find was a staggering amount as it had a
street value worth tens of thousands of dollars.

No one in attendance (by that point about eight people) had ever seen
methamphetamine in person, only in videos and such. But we were all too
familiar with its inherent dangers. To qualify its impact, consider that
meth will one day more than likely annihilate the publicized perils of
crack cocaine addiction. It's more addictive, cheap to produce, easy to
make and effortlessly available to purchase. Plus the high lasts much
longer than a cocaine high.

Fortunately, what we uncovered that night wasn't a meth lab. The people we
arrested were apparently only transporting the drugs through our fair city
before deciding to stay there for a few days. This was a really good thing
because clandestine meth labs are extremely hazardous and volatile
creations whose risk to the public is immense. They are unstable,
potentially explosive environments that produce copious amounts of toxic
waste that are almost always disposed of improperly.

When you consider that meth is made from a virulent concoction of gas
additives, starter fluid, lithium batteries, acetone, paint thinner, lye,
isopropyl alcohol, drain cleaner, iodine, brake cleaner, anhydrous ammonia,
MSM and muriatic acid (among a host of other chemicals that have no
business inside the human body) and that an entire lab can be contained
inside of a suitcase, it's no wonder why the threat level is so high.
Frankly, methamphetamine is on the verge of becoming an atrocious epidemic
in this country.

I was surely glad that we recovered a bunch of meth, made some
drug-trafficking charges, and seized more than $4,000 in cash and thousands
of dollars in stolen property. But, more so, the experience was an
eye-opening look at the grim future.

Tony English is a field training officer with the High Point Police
Department's patrol division.