Meth: A New Drug Crisis Is Growing In Southwest Virginia (1 of 4)

METHAMPHETAMINE: A NEW DRUG CRISIS IS GROWING IN SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

It's Cheap, Highly Addictive, Surging In Popularity And Has Authorities
Deeply Concerned.

The smell gave it away. That sweet, ether-like odor drifted out the front
door, and Lt. Mike Lomans of the Smyth County Sheriff's Office knew he had
stumbled across a methamphetamine lab. He knew he needed help. Fast. "When
they hear me on the radio calling for help, they come quick," Lomans said.
"They don't hear me yelling for help often." He arrived at the Jollivue
Acres mobile home park in Adkins expecting to arrest Adam Ashby, 31, for
violating a protective order.

As it turned out, police said, Ashby and Jason Combs, 24, had spent the
afternoon of May 10 cooking meth, a stimulant that in some Southwest
Virginia counties is now challenging marijuana as the drug of choice.

Unlike the simple dried plant leaves and mellow highs of marijuana, meth is
a hard-edged upper made from cold medicine and household chemicals that can
cause brain damage and harm the environment. Lomans knew meth cooks are
usually users who often binge for days without sleep. They can be
unpredictable, plagued by paranoia and prone to violence. And Lomans knew
that nearly all the ingredients to make meth are caustic, corrosive or
flammable.

One miscalculation in the process can cause explosions or create hazardous
gases that can be fatal if inhaled. Forget the worries about oxycodone, an
abused prescription painkiller Southwest Virginia's drug agents have spent
the past few years fighting. Meth, a drug that has spent 20 years working
its way across the country from the West Coast, has arrived here. "We're
seeing the same thing that everyone else in the West has seen," Narrows
Police Chief Tommy Gautier said. "By the time you realize it's in your
community, you're pretty much eat up with it." Authorities statewide have
already shut down 48 meth labs this year, according to figures compiled by
the Virginia State Police. If the pace continues, it will easily triple the
34 labs found in all of 2003. "It's a very democratic thing," said Chief
Deputy Doug King of the Wythe County Sheriff's Office. "If it shows up in
one place and becomes popular, it's going to become popular everywhere." At
Jollivue Acres, investigators said, Ashby and Combs cooked meth on a hot
plate in the bedroom of trailer 471, a shabby singlewide sandwiched between
neatly kept trailers with flower beds and children's bicycles. Safety isn't
a priority for meth cooks, who often dump chemical waste down the sink or
into the yard, contaminating sewer systems and ground water and who often
vent hazardous fumes without a word of caution to neighbors. Hope Matney, a
mother of two, never suspected what her neighbors were doing. "It's pretty
terrifying, especially when you have kids," said Matney, who lives across
the street. "Who knows how long we've been breathing this. That's my
biggest worry." After authorities arrested Ashby and Combs without
incident, Matney and her neighbors watched as a specially trained team of
narcotics agents from the state donned protective suits and started to
clean up the mess inside the trailer. Ashby and Combs were charged with
manufacturing meth, a felony.

Both have a preliminary hearing scheduled for September in Smyth County
General District Court. Why meth? Simple economics are helping drive meth's
newfound popularity in Virginia, said Jack Tolbert, a hazardous materials
officer with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. For a $600
investment in common household chemicals, a meth cook can reap $2,000 in
profit.

And for about $100, users can get enough meth for 200 doses, each packing
at least a four-hour high. Meth also is relatively simple to produce.

And labs can be mobile, making them difficult to find and bust. A complete
meth lab can fit on a kitchen table or in the trunk of a car. And cooks
only need the ingredients, a power source, water and a recipe, which is
available on the internet, Tolbert said. "We're not finding high-tech labs.
We're finding what we call Beavis and Butthead labs, mom and pop
operations," he said. Meth, also called crank or speed, is a chalky
substance typically sold as rocks or powder that is smoked or snorted.

Its color and texture depend on both the type of recipe and specific
ingredients used to create it, Tolbert said. A recipe prevalent in Lee
County, for example, makes meth that looks like peanut butter, he said.
Regardless of its appearance, the effect is largely the same: An immediate
rush of energy, akin to gulping down a dozen cups of coffee, followed by a
high that lasts four to 24 hours. The drug is like cocaine.

It increases alertness, energy, respiration and euphoria, according to the
National Institute on Drug Abuse. But meth is stronger and more addictive.

Meth users binge on the drug for days at a time without sleep. Meth has
been around Virginia since the early 1980s, when it was cooked exclusively
by biker gangs who ferried it across the country.

It never gained much of a foothold among the region's drug users here, but
it never really left, either, said investigator Danny Weddle of the Smyth
County Sheriff's Office. About three years ago, dealers started selling
meth again, Weddle said. This time, it has grown roots in most Southwest
Virginia counties. "It's growing.

There's no ifs, ands or buts about it," said John Leeper, an investigator
for the Pulaski Police Department. "The users that we're talking to are
telling us in no uncertain terms that it's being made here." DEA's top
priority Every county's drug problem is unique.

Although counties like Wythe and Smyth said meth is the biggest drug on the
market, other areas, like Pulaski County, say it is just one more option
available to drug users. "We still buy more cocaine than anything.

Even in its day, oxycodone never replaced cocaine," Pulaski Police Chief
Gary Roche said. Although the drug hasn't migrated into Richmond and other
eastern Virginia communities, it is the biggest concern of DEA agents in
Virginia, said Laura DiCesare, a spokeswoman for the Virginia arm of the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration. "Crack cocaine used to be the
biggest problem in the state of Virginia, but the meth problem is
definitely growing," she said. "It's very geographically specific, but no
other drugs are a bigger priority because of the leaps and bounds that meth
has been growing in the areas that it's prevalent." And few have had
success chasing meth out of their jurisdictions. West Coast states like
California, where meth first entered the drug scene in the 1980s, are still
chipping away at the drug's hold. Law enforcement's efforts over two
decades seem to have little effect on the problem.

Last year, the DEA helped take down 709 meth labs in California, 208 in
Oregon and 361 in Washington state. In Virginia, drug investigators know
this year's spike in the number of labs busted could be only the beginning
of the problem. "I don't know where this one's going to go. This one scares
me more than anything else we've seen," King said. "I'm hoping that people
will look around and see their friends on this and decide it's not worth it."