KENTUCKY FACING DRUG EPIDEMIC WITH METH

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In the space of only a few years, methamphetamine
has become an epidemic in Kentucky, splitting up families and wrecking
lives.

Since abuse of the drug began to increase in the late 1990s, the
number of indictments for manufacturing and trafficking the drug has
increased more than 450 percent, according to an analysis of court
records by The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Adam Houghton likened the drug's rise to
the emergence of crack cocaine in 1992. When crack first hit, police
were unaware of the problem or what it would do.

"Then it exploded," Houghton said. "Eighteen months later, you stick
your finger in the dike, and your fingers aren't big enough. That's
what methamphetamine is doing to us right now."

Kentucky and neighboring Indiana were caught largely unprepared when
the drug began its devastating spread, the paper reported in Sunday's
editions.

Instead of updating laws to prevent addicts from buying enough cold
and allergy medications to make meth, the states focused on toughening
penalties for those possessing or manufacturing the drug. That
strategy did not slow the drug's onslaught and both states expect to
address the problem in their legislative sessions next year.

Makeshift meth labs are found in garages, fields, hotel rooms and
nearly anywhere. Kentucky has seen a fivefold increase in the number
of meth labs seized in the past five years. This year, the state had
seized 515 illegal labs by Dec. 1 compared with 104 in 2000, according
to statistics compiled by the Louisville office of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Meth's growing popularity can be attributed to a number of factors -
it's cheap, it lasts a long time and it's relatively easy to make with
household chemicals and cold and allergy pills. The drug comes as a
powder or a pill and can be smoked, inhaled, swallowed or injected.

Although western Kentucky has had the heaviest concentration of meth
arrests, the drug has spread east. Laurel County in south-central
Kentucky, for example, had 70 meth-related indictments this year - the
fifth largest number in the state, court records show.

Kentucky has no formal system for tracking drug trends, and state
officials said they cannot measure the scope of any drug epidemic,
which has hampered efforts to stop meth.

The Courier-Journal analysis, though, showed meth indictments for
manufacturing and trafficking the drug grew to 1,854 this fiscal year,
from 336 cases in 1998-99 - a 452 percent increase. In 1998-99,
circuit courts in 32 Kentucky counties had felony meth cases. In
2003-2004, 88 counties had felony meth cases, according to records
provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Experts, police and meth abusers alike said the sheer number of cases
does not begin to illustrate the toll meth takes on communities and
families.

"Meth is pure evil," said Brianna Jenkins, 23, of Louisville, a
recovering user who was living in a car before her family helped her
into treatment. "It will ruin your life."

Masonville couple Stephanie and Allan Powers lost custody of their two
children for two years after being arrested on meth-related charges.
The family was reunited in 2002 after the couple had served time in
jail and drug-treatment centers.

"I began to realize I had a problem," Stephanie Powers said in a
letter about her recovery she sent to family members. "Seeing my
little daughters through a glass window in jail and not being able to
hold them was terrible. The emptiness, guilt, shame and helplessness
were unbearable."

Although there are no firm numbers available for all children removed
from parents because of meth addiction, state police reported finding
66 living at or around meth labs this year. Far more were removed from
homes because of abuse or neglect stemming from meth-addicted parents,
officials said.

"It's a scourge like nothing I've ever seen," said Mary Ellen Nold,
who runs Kentucky's services for children removed from homes because
of abuse or neglect. "It's just like wildfire growing."

Critics said Kentucky and Indiana should have followed the early lead
of other states that found that restricting meth's ingredients was the
single most effective solution.

"The trend has been states tend to wait until the problem was
considered more of a crisis situation before they could justify
putting resources into it," said Sherry Green, director of the
National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, a group that analyzes
drug policies and laws. Green said.

Some Kentucky officials said the meth epidemic had to arrive before it
could be fought.

"I think it's unfair to say the lawmakers haven't taken care of the
problem because the problem is so difficult to come to grips with,"
said Pierce Whites, Kentucky's deputy attorney general. "This is a
different kind of drug problem," he said. "To a certain extent you
have to suffer before you are ready to take strong action."