DRUG SCREENINGS FIND RISING METH USE

Number of people who tested positive for stimulant grew 68% last year

NEW YORK - Often made on the cheap in simple home-based labs,
methamphetamine is fast finding its way into the workplace, a new report
indicates.

Employers who screen job applicants and workers for drugs saw the number
testing positive for methamphetamine surge 68 percent last year, according
to Quest Diagnostics Inc., the country's largest testing company, and the
drug's use is likely to continue increasing as the potent stimulant spreads
to the Eastern United States.

The report -- tallying the results of more than 7 million workplace drug
tests performed last year by New Jersey-based Quest -- shows the
methamphetamine positive rate jumped, along with a smaller rise in positives
for opiates such as heroin, even as the overall number of workers failing
tests stayed nearly unchanged at 4.5 percent.

"These increases that we're seeing are the largest increases of any drug or
drug class for as long as we've been tracking the individual categories" of
drug tests, said Barry Sample, director of science and technology for
Quest's workplace drug-testing business.

Quest has been conducting its annual survey since 1988 but has only broken
it down by drug category and type of worker since 1997.

The surge in the use of amphetamines, a crystalline stimulant often called
"meth" or "ice," has prompted some states to try to limit sales of the
decongestant pseudoephedrine commonly used to make it. While big labs, most
in California, continue to supply most of the illegal meth consumed in the
United States, much of the growth has been fed by small, home labs.

Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration shut down 10,061 small meth
labs, up from 8,063 in 2002. "Clearly, it's emerged and is still emerging as
a serious problem," said Ed Childress, a DEA spokesman.

The number of workers and job candidates testing positive for meth remains
small compared with marijuana, by far the biggest reason that people fail
employer drug screenings, the Quest figures show. About three of every 1,000
workers now test positive for meth, compared with about 3 of every 100
workers testing positive for marijuana.

But while marijuana positives have stayed stable, amphetamine detection is
soaring in the general work force. That contrasts with airline pilots,
workers in nuclear plants and others whose tests are required by the
government, for whom positive meth rates have increased only slightly.

In the general work force, though, usage appears to be rising at an even
faster rate than in the past few years, when annual increases in the number
of positive drug tests ranged from 14 to 17 percent.

Long known as the poor man's cocaine and the drug of choice among street and
motorcycle gangs in Southern California, meth is made from cheap
over-the-counter compounds and can keep users awake for hours, even days on
end.

Quest found the number of workers testing positive for the drug has
increased sharply in southeastern states. Of the small labs broken up by the
DEA last year, the largest number was in Missouri, with Tennessee and
Arkansas also hotbeds of production.

Carolinas Impact

Methamphetamine use in the Carolinas is showing up in more drug screenings,
observers say, as the narcotic continues to grow in popularity despite
crackdowns by law enforcement.

Marsha Kennedy with screening company Wolf Data in Concord said her office
has seen a 30 percent uptick in meth detection over the last year.

She said many users mistakenly believe the drug quickly flushes from the
system. While it can remain in the bloodstream for as little as eight hours,
she said, meth can linger for days in long-term users.

"We're seeing it from all types of jobs -- professionals, construction
workers, just all over the spectrum," she said.

Authorities shut down nine meth labs in North Carolina in 1999. As of
Monday, law enforcement agents have shut 180 labs this year, according the
N.C. Attorney General's Office.

Increasing use and manufacture of the drug has grabbed the attention of
state lawmakers. This year, the N.C. legislature stiffened penalties and
approved longer sentences for those who manufacture meth.

To read more about meth's impact in the Carolinas, visit
www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/photos/8242554.htm.