METH LAB THREAT GROWING IN STATE

GREENSBORO -- Methamphetamine is a growing killer that threatens all
of North Carolina. And the Triad is not exempt.

That was the message state Attorney General Roy Cooper told about 100
social workers, police officers, and medical officials at a daylong
conference on the drug's effect on communities where it is produced.

Methamphetamine has challenged police nationwide because it is simple
to make, with ingredients found at most drug stores. The chemicals
involved are explosive and toxic, adding to the dangers normally
associated with street drugs.

"Most people don't know about meth," Cooper said Wednesday. "They
will." Greensboro learned the dangers of home drug production three
years ago when police found a man bleeding and nearly unconscious at
Stonesthrow Apartments on Holden Road. He had been making Ecstasy,
which has many of the same chemicals found in methamphetamine.
Neighbors were evacuated for three days, and it took a week to
decontaminate the apartment.

Triad police have found meth labs in houses, apartments and mobile
homes. Last year, three were found in Guilford County. Seven were
found in Randolph County, the most in the Triad.

The majority of meth labs in North Carolina are in the west, often
hidden in remote areas in the Appalachians. Across the state line,
Tennessee police found 499 labs last year.

Cooper and others see the threat heading east.

"It's moving in from the mountain areas," said Detective J.E.
Armstrong with the Greensboro narcotics unit.

Last year, 177 meth labs were found in the state; 98 were found in
2002. Just nine were found in 1999.

"This problem is going to be in every county in North Carolina if it's
anything like it is in surrounding states," Cooper said.

Armstrong wasn't surprised to hear the SBI has found 70 labs already
in 2004, putting the state on pace to discover 100 more labs than last
year.

A major reason for the boom, he said, is how easy it is to make meth:
Recipes are readily accessible on the Internet, individual ingredients
are legal.

"It's like baking a cake," Armstrong said.

The lab itself is a menace, he said. At worst, the chemical process
can result in an explosion. At the least, it will produce toxic waste.

The chemicals used in a meth lab can cause long-term mental and
physical problems.

Children were found in about a fourth of all labs found in the state
last year, Cooper said.

He is asking for about $38,000 for sessions similar to Wednesday's
program at the Guilford social services complex, where social workers
learned how to identify children who may be exposed to a meth lab.

Cooper also wants almost $900,000 in new federal and state funds to
hire more SBI agents and buy more equipment to uproot meth labs. He is
pushing for tougher punishments for people who make the drug.

But given the ease of setting up a methamphetamine operation and the
addictive nature of the drug, Armstrong said, it is easy to see why
North Carolina is on the brink of an epidemic.

"If a crack head could make all the crack they wanted, where would
they stop?" Armstrong said.