REGIONAL MEH TASK FORCE REPORTS SUCCESSFUL QUARTER

Watauga County Sheriff Mark Shook has delivered a message to
methamphetamine manufacturers: Watauga, Ashe and Wilkes counties are
very dangerous places to practice your trade. And they're only going
grow more and more hazardous as time goes on.

Shook said the Northwestern North Carolina Methamphetamine Task Force
has already made a serious dent in the number of meth labs operating
in Watauga County, and the word on the street is that the cooks are
already on the lookout for safer territory to operate from.

Meth manufacturers are resourceful if nothing else,
though.

As Watauga, Ashe and Wilkes counties increase the pressure on meth
labs, the cooks seem to be reacting by simply moving their toxic
kitchens to areas where law enforcement is still well behind the curve.

Mobile kitchens are popping up everywhere.

In August, Watauga County Sheriff's deputies responded to a report of
what appeared to be a routine traffic accident. When deputies arrived
on the scene they found a severely damaged vehicle and two slightly
injured occupants whom Sheriff Shook described at the time as "lucky
to be alive."

Their good fortune was short-lived. Witnesses at the scene had
observed the driver and his passenger attempting to conceal a large
duffel bag and a backpack beneath some nearby trees. Shook said the
two had apparently been carrying everything necessary to cook up a
batch of meth. All they needed was a site remote enough to set up in.

What is to prevent meth manufacturers from moving their kitchens every
time the heat gets too intense? Shook can see no solution unless
retailers agree to impose tighter controls on the only two truly
irreplaceable ingredients in the meth cooking process: the drugs
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine found most commonly in over-the-counter
cold medicines and diet pills.

Many cold medicines list these two drugs as the active ingredient
aimed at relieving nasal discomfort.

Law enforcement officials such as Shook would prefer these drugs be
placed behind the pharmacy counter and distributed with much the same
scrutiny as other commonly abused drugs, Codeine, Vicodin and
OxyContin among them.

Retailers are reluctant to conform to such requests. At the Boone
Wal-Mart, pharmacy manager Ron Proffit said law enforcement officials
requested they move their broad line of cold remedies behind the
pharmacy glass. He gestured toward a long aisle filled from top shelf
to floor with the popular medicines and said, "But you can see what
that would do to the shelves there."

It's hard to dispute worries that empty shelves might thwart the kinds
of sales that keep retailers like Wal-Mart operating, while providing
billions of dollars in sales for the pharmaceuticals industry.

Industry lobbyists have preached relentlessly the gospel of free trade
in the offices of state and federal legislators since at least 1986.
That's when the prospect of making ephedrine and pseudoephedrine
available only by prescription first reared its head.

An informal survey of retail managers throughout Boone revealed a
common desire to help, and a shared loathing for the impact of
methamphetemines on the community, but not to the point of depriving
customers easy access to the cold medicines so many desire.

Many retailers have limited to three the number of pseudoephedrine and
ephedrine medicines available for purchase during any one transaction.
At Wal-Mart, the computer invokes the rule automatically.

Ever-resourceful meth lab shoppers have evaded the limits though, by
combining carefully timed return trips with theft.

"They'll come into the store and buy three packs," Shook explained,
"but they've shoplifted six. Then they'll come back a few hours later,
buy three more and steal six more."

With the drugs out there on the aisles within easy reach, and the
minimal packaging a cinch to conceal, Shook said their only remaining
choice is to work in unison with each store's loss control department.
Limiting the opportunity for shoplifting limits one more source of the
drugs most essential to the methamphetemine trade.

The home-cooked variety of meth, whose operators rely on bubble packs
of around 24 tablets each, makes up only about a fifth of all the meth
sold and used in the United States.

The other 80 percent are tied largely to Mexican drug cartels, which
use pseudoephedrine in the much larger quantities available on the
wholesale market.

About 1,300 to 1,800 metric tons of white powder ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine are produced worldwide every year. A two-year
investigation undertaken by the Portland Oregonian newspaper found
that nearly all of it comes from a small number of factories in just
four countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, India, and China. About
200 tons goes to supply so-called Super Labs (those capable of
producing at least 10 pounds every 24 hours) in the United States.

The White House Office of Drug Control Policy reports that the
finished meth reaches North Carolina by way of Mexican and, to a
lesser extent, Caucasian criminal groups who purchase the drug in
Mexico, California, and southwestern states for transport into the
state.

Simple arithmetic suggests that even in the unlikely case Shook and
his task force are able to totally wipe out every meth kitchen in the
county, as much as 80 percent of the drug remains available to
continue its destructive path through the lives of addicts, their
families and communities.

The meth problem has been slow to reach North Carolina and its East
Coast neighbors. The explosion in the drug's popularity has its
epicenter on the West Coast more than 15-years past, presumably due to
the region's proximity to the Mexican border and the long-established
presence of Mexican gangs and their intricate network of illicit drug
smugglers and distributors.

In Oregon, the meth epidemic had reached dire enough proportions to
send Oregonian reporter Steve Suo across the globe in search of its
causes and effects. Suo has gained high praise from sociologists for
his ingenious use of scientific methodology in studying the problem.
His contributions are included in a five-part series published in
October and available online at www.oregonlive.com/special/oregonian/meth/.

What Suo uncovered was both startling and hopeful.

His research shows the methamphetamine trade had been all but wiped
out in the mid-1980s by strict legislation requiring suppliers of
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to keep close tabs on exactly who was
buying its product and where it was being used.

Stiff fines encouraged compliance, and the increased risks to meth
traffickers, as well as the rising cost of producing the drug,
effectively drove a stake through the heart of the black market.

It did not last long, as Suo discovered. The pharmaceuticals industry
began a determined lobbying effort, partly out of fear the regulations
were only the beginning of a slippery slope toward turning the highly
profitable over-the-counter medicines into a prescription-only drug.
Their efforts weakened the laws, meth manufacturers exploited the
loopholes and the meth trade blossomed again.

The Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996 closed some of
those loopholes for a short while. But each time lawmakers add to the
list of restricted chemicals, meth manufacturers craft new recipes
with ingredients outside the regulations. It's a cat and mouse game
that continues today.

In December, 10 new chemicals will join the list in North Carolina.
Exactly how meth traffickers will respond is yet to be seen. It seems
likely that even as they scatter with law enforcement close on their
tails, they'll be keeping a keen lookout for loopholes along the way.