METH BUSTS ON RISE IN KANAWHA VALLEY

Full-Time Cleanup Company Opening A Local Office

The illegal production of methamphetamine has become such a problem in
Kanawha and Putnam counties that a company contracted by the Drug
Enforcement Administration to clean up a lab is opening a local office.

Ferguson Harbor Service Inc., a Tennessee-based company that specializes in
transporting and disposing of hazardous waste, is scheduled to open an
office in the area in the next few months, said Lt. Steve Neddo, head of
the Metro Drug Unit.

Currently, if a local police agency raids a lab, which they've been taking
down at a rate of two per week since the first of the year, it can't leave
the scene until a crew from Columbus, Ohio, comes down to clean up the site.

Neddo said Ferguson is a for-profit operation, and it wouldn't come here if
it wasn't going to make money. Attempts to contact the company for comment
were unsuccessful.

A look at the number of labs processed by the officers under Neddo's
command proves the Kanawha Valley is the place to be for those who want to
make money by cleaning up the materials used to cook the drug.

"It's a huge problem," Neddo said.

This year, drug unit agents have raided 27 labs. If history is any
indication, that number is likely to increase over the next eight months.

In 2003, police raided 38 labs. Seven were taken down in 2002.

The operations aren't huge. Neddo calls them "Mom and Pop" or "Beavis and
Butt-head" labs, referencing two animated MTV characters known for their
slow wit and diabolical laugh.

Meth is derived from the cold medicine pseudoephedrine. The ultimate goal
of a cook is to isolate the ephedrine, the drug's active ingredient. When
taken in a more pure form, the highly addictive drug gives users the
feeling of a constant adrenaline rush.

The operations for making the drug usually follow a similar model. A small
group of people will buy the ingredients, which range from pseudoephedrine
to Coleman fuel, go to someone's house, cook and then split the product.

How a person takes the drug is up to the individual. It can be snorted,
smoked, taken orally or injected.

Although some money can be made off the enterprise, Neddo said the goal of
most of the people they've busted is to get a buzz, not traffic the dope
for cash. Cooks who live in the area don't mind sharing their recipes. They
recently arrested a man on the outskirts of Charleston who was teaching two
others how to cook the drug.

An odd offshoot of the problem is that some storeowners are profiteering on
items used to cook the drug. Neddo said he spoke to one business owner who
noticed that people were buying matches by the caseload. The red phosphorus
in match heads is used in the cooking process. When he realized what was
going on, the man then tripled his price.

Like most drugs, Neddo said, the initial high is powerful, but the euphoric
feeling diminishes the longer the person takes it. After the effects of the
meth wear off, a person crashes and can drop into a days-long sleep. They
then have to pump themselves full of the drug to get back to a normal mood.

"They're no longer doing it to get high. They're doing it to feel normal,"
he said.

The drug also seems to play on a person's "fight or flight" reaction. When
most people are confronted by a police officer, they generally know they're
caught and give up. But Neddo said a lot of the meth addicts seem to be
willing to fight.

He cited the case of Oklahoma State Trooper Nik Green. Green was shot and
killed in Devol, Okla., in December by a former firefighter who police say
was strung out on meth. The case is pending in Oklahoma's state court.

Calling it a case of "paranoia to the extreme," Neddo said meth addicts
think everybody is out to get them. His officers recently arrested a man
who stood at his window for days with a loaded gun because he thought
people were watching him.

A woman who drove to Florida to pick up a load of meth managed to take some
on the trip back to West Virginia. When she arrived in Charleston, she
turned herself into police because she thought black Chevrolet Suburbans
were following her.

Aside from the problems associated with the addiction, the drug can have a
dangerous effect on the community because the cooking process is so volatile.

Neddo cited an incident in Charleston Tuesday afternoon where a West Side
home was severely damaged by a fire caused by a possible meth lab
explosion. Other than the alleged cook, two other people were in the home.
Had city firefighters not responded to the residence so quickly, Neddo said
the flames could have spread and destroyed two other buildings.

There was another incident on the city's West Side last year in which the
basement apartment of a two-story home caught fire when a man was inside
trying to cook meth on an outdoor grill, Neddo said. The people who lived
in the home's upper portion had no idea what he was up to until they saw
smoke coming out of the apartment.

The drug's byproduct also is incredibly dangerous. Police said a man
started a Dumpster fire at Washington Manor in February when he threw a
garbage bag full of meth cooking byproducts into the container, causing an
explosion.

In the fight against the drug, Neddo said it is incumbent on prosecuting
attorneys to take a more active role in the cases.

He added that there needs to be more restrictions on how many
pseudoephedrine pills a person could buy at one time.

Putnam County experienced a 100 percent increase in meth lab busts from
2002 to 2003. County deputies have busted 11 meth labs this year, including
one taken down late Tuesday on Turkey Creek Road in Hurricane.

"The thing has increased so much, if we've already had 10 by March, I'm
just hoping it doesn't double again," said Chief Deputy John Dailey.

All the labs taken down this year have been found in either vehicles or in
homes, Dailey said. He added that no deaths or massive fires have been
reported.

"It's just as bad with all the chemicals out there," Dailey said.

He said landlords have problems with tenants who set up meth labs in their
apartments because from that point on, a landlord is required to disclose
that a property was used for making meth to every potential new tenant.

The chemicals seep into every part of the apartment, from the tiles in the
ceiling to the floorboards.

Dailey reiterated Neddo's point that meth can be a danger to a community
even if it doesn't cause an accident. He said deputies took down a lab last
year where a suspect fled and dumped the chemicals into a neighbor's yard.

Right now, the sheriff's department has three drug agents, and Dailey said
when three deputies who are in Iraq return to the force, he might add a fourth.

"I've said it before, I could put seven deputies on (meth cases), and
they'd all be working full time," Dailey said.

From the bust to the indictment, a deputy will put in about 100 hours per
lab bust.

Because the problem isn't only confined to rural areas of the county, he'd
like to see some of the city police departments add to the drug force.

"If we don't get it in their cities, it doesn't mean they don't have it,"
Dailey said.

Dailey said there were lots of contributing factors to the booming meth
industry -- high taxes and a weak economy -- to name a few. He said it's
easy money. Someone making and selling meth stands to make $100 per gram
from a $500 investment.

He said the biggest problem, though, is the Internet.

A Google search for the terms "make meth," a search Dailey has run, yields
thousands of hits, including articles on the dangers of making meth to
extensive and easy-to-follow recipes for production.

That kind of wide ranging access to the drug recipes makes meth a
far-reaching crime. Those arrested range in age from their teens to their
40s and 50s, Dailey said.

"It's like anything else. You're a criminal if you're 20 or 80," he said.
"They are all the same. They just don't care."

He said that often the crimes are linked to drug and alcohol use.

"The last guy I got had a needle in one hand, a vial of crank in the
other," Dailey said.

State Police were involved in a case last December where Charles Damian
Price, 24, was killed by either inhaling the fumes from a meth lab or the
explosion of the meth lab. His body was dumped in a Jims Ridge field out of
fear that police would discover the meth lab, police said.

Dailey said despite the spate of meth lab busts, Putnam County is still one
of the safest, at least compared to its neighbors. Last year, Putnam County
experienced only two robberies and had no murders.