AREA METH USE ON THE RISE

VIRGINIA -- Methamphetamine is roaring toward the Midwest like two
tidal waves from the East and West Coasts.

And they are about to crash down on the Iron Range in full
force.

Meth use in the area "is on the rise," Boundary Waters Drug Task Force
Coordinator and Investigator Evans said. The highly addictive drug is
currently readily available locally but "we haven't seen the peak of
it yet. Not by far."

From toxic waste created at a rate of seven pounds of sludge per
pound of meth, to addicts who have less than a one in 15 chance of
recovery, the methamphetamine wave can be devastating.

Evans, who didn't want his first name used because of his current
undercover work, estimated that the Range will see methamphetamine use
climax in 12 to 18 months. Most of the United States is already at the
height of its meth use, as drugs often infiltrate the country at its
coastal ports and work their way inland.

How long the meth peak lasts depends largely on what other drugs might
come along to take its place.

"Meth is pretty widespread right now," Evans said. "It's like in the
mid '80s, when crack / cocaine was so big."

Since then, methamphetamine has taken over as the drug of choice
because it delivers "more bang for the buck," Evans said. "It will
probably take another drug to get meth off the scene."

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The Iron Range may be one of the last places in the country where
methamphetamine hits, but only because it's not near a coastal port.
Compared to the rest of Minnesota, the isolated Northwoods have
provided no protection from the newest drug craze.

"We may have more meth users per capita than Duluth," Evans said. He
attributed that to a more depressed economy, which leaves many people
laid off, with plenty to worry about but little else to do, besides
drugs.

But no matter the economy or social status of the area, there will
always be a call for the illicit stimulant. There is too much demand
for it, even by people who just want to lose weight or work long
hours, Evans said.

"I've seen people go from 250 pounds to 150 pounds in a year and a
half on meth," Evans said. "It suppresses appetites. Then there's the
CEOs working 60 hours a week" who depend on meth to keep them going.

The drug has infiltrated many walks of life on the Iron Range,
Assistant County Attorney Gordon Coldagelli said.

"It seems I'm surprised every time I see a new methamphetamine
defendant," he said. "I find myself thinking, how did that person get
involved with meth?"

The bulk of his cases involve young adults, from ages 20 to
35.

"There are people with good jobs," he said. "Supervisors for
construction firms, people who work at mines" and computer
technicians.

"It seems to me that it's an indication of how addictive the drug is.
A lot of people who get addicted to methamphetamine are probably
people who use marijuana and are a part of that subculture, and
they're experimenting with something new."

Evans has also watched the drug cross demographic borders.

"I think it's right across, from doctors to concrete workers to
unemployed miners. It knows no socioeconomic barriers," Evans said. "I
am not shocked anymore when someone in the higher echelon gets caught.
They're just harder to catch. They take less risks.

"I believe you're either someone who's going to use or you're not.
It's just like caffeine or alcohol or other drugs."

Meth users can become addicted from their first taste of the drug and
have only a 6 percent recovery rate.

"What it does, is users do whatever they have to to get their meth,"
Evans said. "Basically it controls your life. It tells you what to
do."

A methamphetamine high lasts from one to eight days, then the user
crashes and sleeps for one to three days, Evans said. "You can spot
users in public, if you know what to look for."

With prolonged use, addicts get bags or dark circles under their eyes,
lose teeth and weight, and develop a gray pallor to their skin.

They also lose any capability of feeling emotion, and suffer
depression and paranoia, Arrowhead Center Director Rick Goodman said.
The center treats people with alcohol and chemical dependency.

"They're always looking over their shoulders," he said about meth
users. "And they talk like they're on speed. When they come in,
they're talking really fast. They go days without eating or sleeping
and, consequently, if there are children involved, they're not eating,
either."

He has also seen devastating physical effects of the
drug.

"They call it formication," Goodman said. Meth addicts "get so toxic,
the toxins start coming out of the skin and users literally think they
have insects under their skin, so they start itching."

Also called "meth mites," the phenomenon occurs when the body can't
digest toxic additives in meth. It instead forces the toxins out
through the pores, causing sores, acne and chronic scratching.

As a stimulant, methamphetamine also speeds up heart and respiratory
rates.

"You don't see a lot of old methamphetamine users," Evans said. "They
die. It speeds up your heart, not in a good way, like with exercise.
You're basically speeding up the aging process."

Meth also has social repercussions. Coldagelli has seen
methamphetamine ruin peoples' lives, costing them their jobs and their
families.

"There have been divorces over it," he said. "It's just devastating
what it can do."

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Watching the methamphetamine wave crash toward the central United
States, local law enforcement has had time to ready themselves for the
surge.

"Before we saw meth involvement increase here, we could see use and
manufacture increase elsewhere in the country," Virginia Supervising
Deputy Sheriff John Malovrh said. "In some sense, we could see it coming."

They prepared by training eight lab technicians to safely dismantle
meth cooking sites from International Falls to Grand Rapids.

"Before two years ago, we had none," Evans said. "Now we have meth lab
entry teams with respirators. They're trained for booby traps and gas."

Meth labs are highly hazardous. Full of volatile chemicals, the sites
run a risk of explosion and whole structures can be covered in the
acidic residue left after cooking the drug. Meth "cooks" leave toxic
materials behind when they abandon a lab site, which can be in a home,
car, cabin, hunting shack or hotel room. The toxins are left for the
general public to find, or to seep into the land or nearby streams and
lakes.

Local law enforcement has come across many old or abandoned labs and
found plenty of evidence of people cooking meth but, Malovrh said,
"our number of lab site discoveries haven't dramatically increased"
since methamphetamine has gained in popularity.

Another local organization fighting the meth flood is The Boundary
Waters Drug Task Force. The organization binds area law enforcement
agencies together to orchestrate a concerted effort against the area's
drug problems.

Evans took over as the head of the Drug Task Force in June. His job
entails surveillance, using informants to track down drug dealers and
doing undercover work.

"I've made buys since 1994 and done about 100 in St. Louis County," he
said. "We try to target the top people in the area. That's our
ultimate goal."

It's a challenging job, though, in small towns, where everyone knows
virtually everyone else and if law enforcement "makes a couple of
busts, everyone gets paranoid and shuts down for a while," Evans said.

When they do get a lead, though, most of the "top people" in the local
methamphetamine subculture are dealers, Evans said.

"The majority of our meth is still being imported," he said. Producers
of the drug and their labs are still relatively rare in the area. "The
precursor chemicals you need (to make meth) are harder and harder to
get."

Laws regulating the sale of ephedrine, which is used to create
methamphetamine, are stringent. Repeat purchases of ephedrine, which
is found in over-the-counter cold medicine, are reported to Evans'
office.

"People buying (these drugs) -- that's how we catch most of the
users," he said.

Those buying the red-flag items at local stores are usually stocking a
small operation.

"The local meth labs that we have dealt with seem to have been set up
by someone addicted and making it for personal use," Coldagelli said.
He has not seen anything to indicate an increase in local manufacture
of meth.

"It's not reflected in the cases I handle," he said. "It appears to me
that most of our methamphetamine is coming from other sources."

This ability to make methamphetamine anywhere is part of what makes it
most appealing, though, Malovrh said.

"It's highly addictive and, because of that, there seems to be more
prolonged, constant use," he said. "It can be manufactured locally and
it's a little more affordable" than most drugs.

With limited hope for current methamphetamine addicts rehabilitating
and the meth wave poised to crash down on the Midwest, the demand for
the drug will only grow on the Iron Range.

And all of law enforcement's attempts to stem the tide may take the
brunt of that impact, but, Evans said, no one knows how to evaporate
the problem, or even turn the tide aside.

"Meth's not going to go away," he said. "It'll never go
away."

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The next installment of the Drugs and Violence series will look at
local drug-use trends and what officials say the Iron Range can expect
in the near future.