RED RIVER VALLEY PLAGUED BY METH

An epidemic is spreading through the Red River Valley, threatening
even the lives of those engaged in the fight to rid this medical
menace from the streets.

No pill offers a cure. In fact, over-the counter medicines have
contributed to the spread of the epidemic as they are used to
manufacture methamphetamine.

The problem is severe and dangerous for both users and law enforcement
officers engaged in the fight to curb the manufacture, sale and use of
the street drug that grows in popularity.

Sometime manufactured in a motel room or city residence, meth as it is
commonly known is more often "cooked' in remote rural locations using
readily obtainable materials. Once the addictive drug used by Adolf
Hitler's Germany to keep Nazi soldiers alert, meth has become a street
drug of choice in the United States.

Despite the combined efforts of city, county, regional and state law
enforcement agencies and officers, the Red River Valley has become a
major meth lab locale. The street drug is being produced on both sides
of the river despite efforts to stop its proliferation.

"Meth labs have been steadily on the uprise for at least the last
eight years," Lamar District Attorney's Office Investigator Chris
Brooks said.

The investigator is one of only five local law enforcement officers
certified to perform on-the-scene clearance, a requirement before law
enforcement officers can enter a highly toxic methamphetamine
laboratory for detailed investigation.

"Any one of its ingredients will kill," Brooks said of red phosphorus,
anhydrous ammonia, alcohol, methanol, iodine, lye, sulfuric acid,
muriatic acid, lithium and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride. All are
ingredients in one of three meth production methods.

A high concentration of toxic chemicals inhaled from a methamphetamine
laboratory is harmful. One breath can cause trouble, including
damaging the liver.

Pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient found in Sudafed, Claritin-D
and other common cold remedies is a key ingredient used in all meth
cooking operations. The proliferation of meth labs caused Oklahoma to
restrict over-the-counter sales last year, but lawmen say the new laws
sent meth producers across the state line to buy, or in many cases
steal, cold tablets.

But legislative help may be on the way in the Lone Star state, where
laws have been proposed in both the Texas Senate and House to curb
over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine-containing tablets and to
increase criminal penalties for meth production, sales and use.

"There is not a law enforcement agency in the state of Texas that
would not appreciate help on this, because it is a statewide problem,"
Brooks said.

Recognizing the problem as well as sales losses due to theft, most
major pharmacies in Paris already have taken action to prevent theft
and reduce mass sales of pseudoephedrine-based product. Cold tablets
have been taken off shelves. Customers are required to come to
counters to make purchases, and some stores now limit the number of
packages that can be purchased at one time.

Although regional authorities have broken up several large-scale
operations and have seized meth worth more than $1 million on the
street, Lamar District Attorney Gary Young said most of the cases he
has seen have involved small-scale operations.

"There is no profit in it," Young explained, as he spoke of the
smaller meth labs. "Usually they are users who make it to sell, to
make more, and to use more."

"It's a downward spiral that leads to other crimes such as thefts and
assaults," Young concluded.

Methamphetamine is sold on the street for about $100 a gram. That's an
amount approximately equal to a single package of Sweet 'N Low.

"There's a bunch of it (methamphetamine laboratories) out there,"
assistant Regional Drug Task Force Commander Tommy Moore has said of
meth labs.

The Paris Police Department and the Lamar County Sheriff's Office are
teamed in a drug task force with sheriff's departments in Fannin,
Delta, Hopkins and Franklin counties as well as police departments in
Bonham and Sulphur Springs.

Meth lab busts are common, but Moore said locating manufacturing sites
can be difficult because cooking operations are such that "they can
cook the methamphetamine in a matter of hours and be gone."

As in Paris and Lamar County, methamphetamine has become the No. 1
illicit drug in Choctaw County, according to a narcotics officer who
asked not to be identified.

"By far, marijuana is pretty well a thing of the past here," the
narcotics officer said. "Marijuana is minor stuff anymore. The meth
problem is an epidemic. In the old marijuana days, it would take 'em
all summer to grow a marijuana crop. They can cook up a batch of meth
in three hours."