METHAMPHETAMINE USE RISES IN THE AREA

Mitchell County Sheriff Ken Fox holds a sheet of paper with about 100 names
written under the heading "Felonies." He goes down the list and circles
close to 50 names.

"These were all meth arrests from the past two years," he says. Fox says
methamphetamines, along with prescription drug abuse, have become a growing
problem in Mitchell County and other rural areas in North Carolina. Watauga
County, which made two arrests for meth last year, has made about 30
arrests this year.

Mitchell County detective Shannon Smith attributes the increasing arrests
to the accessibility of cheap materials and the convenience of recipes
surfacing on the Internet.

"More and more people are trying to make it themselves," Smith said. "The
labs we're uncovering in Western North Carolina, they're usually in the
kitchens of a regular home. It's really easy for them to download the
recipes online."

Over 200 household materials can be used to to manufacture
methamphetamines. Some of the more common substances include propane, camp
stove fuel, alcohol, paint thinner, ammonia and drain cleaner. Lithium,
another common substance, is often gathered by stripping certain varieties
of batteries.

Smith said there are two popular ways to make the drug in the home setting.
The first and most popular form is the anhydrous ammonia, or "Nazi,"
method. Smith said the substance could be made in just a few hours this way.

The second form is called the red phospherous method, which gathers the
material by scraping striking pads from match books and then combining the
substance with iodine to make hydriotic acid, a chemical frequently used in
manufacturing methamphetamines. The red phosphorous method is more time
consuming but yields greater quantities than the "Nazi method," which
usually produces ounce-size quantities. Aside from causing damage to the
brain, lungs and liver, methamphetamine's more immediate danger is the
actual process of manufacturing. A large number of clandestine labs have
burned or exploded recently, indicating carelessness among some
manfufacturers, Smith said.

"The lithium reacts violently with water, and if they're not careful,"
Smith said, "they can get hurt badly from fires related to manufacturing."

The National Drug Intelligence Center states that "young people are
attracted to the drug because of its euphoric effects and because the drug
can keep them awake for prolonged periods." Only six percent of people
addicted to methamphetimines recover from the addiction. The growing
methamphetamine problem has prompted some counties, including Mitchell, to
organize joint federal drug task forces overseen by the DEA, which conducts
and monitors extensive investigations. Fox said he wants to work with other
law enforcement agencies, such as the State Bureau of Investigation, to
combat the growing problem. "Our meth arrests have sky-rocketed," Fox said.
"We're doing the best we can right now to deal with something that isn't
just a Mitchell County problem."