METH PROVES TO BE ROUND-THE-CLOCK TROUBLE ACROSS MUCH OF OKLAHOMA

Editor's note: This is the first in a six-part Associated Press series on the
devastating effects of methamphetamine manufacture and addiction in Oklahoma
communities. For a related story, see Page A4.

Every day, someone in Oklahoma deals with the problems of methamphetamine,
whether they are lawmen on the beat or users trying to beat an addiction. The
Associated Press, with the help of its member newspapers and broadcasters,
wanted to show the drug's presence in the state during a randomly selected
24-hour period. On July 24, this is what happened:

12:06 a.m. -- LeFlore County Deputy Sheriff Justin Phillips is on a manhunt,
responding to a possible sighting of a man wanted for allegedly operating a
large meth lab in the back of a pickup truck. Hours earlier, two men led
deputies on a chase before crashing the truck near Panama and fleeing. Search
dogs tracked them for miles in far eastern Oklahoma before losing the trail.

2:30 a.m. -- An eight-hour shift driving the backroads of Ottawa County in
search of drug activity and tracking down informants comes to an end for
sheriff's Lt. Scott Graham. The three-man narcotics unit he supervises has
seized 15 methamphetamine labs this year and arrested more than 35 people.

3 a.m. -- In the early morning darkness, the special operations unit of the
Caddo County Sheriff's Office conducts surveillance on an anhydrous ammonia
storage site. They'll be here for six hours. Farmers use anhydrous ammonia as
fertilizer, but thieves often steal it to make meth.

8:40 a.m. -- In what has become a daily ritual, a woman and her two young sons
stand outside the county jail in Miami, hoping to catch a glimpse of inmate
Richard O'Hara through a pair of slim windows. O'Hara, who is accused among
other things of attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, works in the prison
laundry. "He'll be here soon," Teresa O'Hara tells her boys, wrapping her
slender arms around them and turning their heads so she can look into their
eyes. "Your daddy will be here soon." She was arrested along with her husband
and also faces trial this fall.

9:00 a.m. -- Bartlesville police and a special task force use a battering ram
to enter a house where 6 grams of suspected methamphetamine are found. Two
people are arrested. At the same time in Poteau, a jury hears testimony in the
trial of 59-year-old James Preston Ray Sr. Ray was serving a 10-year suspended
sentence for meth possession when his parole officer allegedly found a meth lab
in the bedroom of his home.

9:30 a.m. -- James Dillon, 31, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, sits
handcuffed to a dozen other men in a Tulsa County courtroom. When it's his
turn, he pleads guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine and injuring a minor
child. He receives seven years in prison for his first meth conviction. His
girlfriend, Michelle Ashlock, also is there but must await sentencing on the
same charges. Her 10-year-old son was in the house where meth cooking was
taking place. The boy tested positive for the drug.

10 a.m. -- A Carter County task force, acting on a tip, finds suspected
methamphetamine in the home of a young couple. Agents say two small children,
including an infant, were living in the house. The parents are arrested. The
children go to live with a relative.

Noon -- On death row of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, inmate
Harold Loyd McElmurry II is served a lunch of beans, greens, cabbage and
cornbread. McElmurry told police he and his wife were high on methamphetamine
when they killed an elderly Lenna couple in 1999. This is his last Thursday to
live. His execution takes place July 29.

2 p.m. -- The office of U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., prepares a news release
about new funding for meth enforcement. "We've got to meet this crisis
head-on," Lucas says. "Our local police departments and sheriffs' offices are
on the front lines of this war."

3:30 p.m. -- Back in LeFlore County, Deputy Phillips visits a home near Panama
where a tipster says he might find one of the suspects from the previous day's
pursuit. He doesn't find the suspect -- just another suspected meth lab. Two
people are taken away in handcuffs.

And in a Tulsa courtroom, Kevin Lee Weber is sentenced to 20 years in prison
for trafficking meth via express delivery. A police dog had alerted on a
package sent by Federal Express and addressed to Weber's Tulsa apartment. A
search turned up 4.5 ounces of meth inside.

3:40 p.m. -- McCurtain County law officers descend on a Broken Bow home after
an undercover agent speaks to a suspected meth dealer. They seize glassware and
chemicals and arrest a man and a woman. It's their 31st such seizure this year.
"We're probably more aggressive than we've ever been," Sheriff Mike Willaby
says, "and trained to know what we're looking for."

4 p.m. -- Returning to work in Ottawa County, Graham arrives at his office and
immediately picks up the phone to call a drug informant. "What have got for me
today?" Graham asks. "I need some help. What can you do for me?"

4:30 p.m. -- The Poteau jury convicts James Preston Ray Sr. on meth charges. At
the same time, nearly 200 miles away, a special operations team in Norman is
called out. A man has discovered trash from a suspected meth lab on his
property. Officers clean up empty bottles of a gas additive called Heet, camp
fuel and lithium battery casings. Moments later, 20 yards away, they find
another pile of suspected meth debris.

7 p.m. -- In Perry, a group of young women gather around Gloria Brown for a
weekly Bible study. They look older than they are, aged by the drug addictions
they are trying to beat through a faith-based program called Overcoming Through
the Crisis. One woman tells the group she's worried because the boyfriend with
whom she used to sell and do drugs is coming home for the weekend. "I don't
want to go back to my old lifestyle," she says. "I don't want to be tempted to
do something wrong. But I'm afraid of being alone. I'm so much older than him
and now that he's thinking straight, I might not be appealing to him." Brown
recalls her own daughter's journey -- a 20-year drug addiction that brought
lost jobs, rehab after failed rehab, five children with five different dads, a
family ripped apart and ultimately, jail. A faith-based program eventually
helped her daughter beat that addiction.

7:10 p.m. -- A 20-year-old recovering addict in Shawnee finishes eating a
dinner of pizza. This day, the meth craving isn't there, but it can hit when
she least expects it. Sometimes she can taste and smell the drug, even if it's
nowhere around.

10:30 p.m. -- Cruising along a state highway in Stephens County, Deputy John
Guthrie pulls over a pickup truck driving with its license plate light out.
When the driver rolls down the window, Guthrie smells the telltale odor of
ether, which is used in meth making. He contacts a drug team, which arrives
with a drug-sniffing dog. They find suspected meth in a passenger's purse and
in a tissue in the passenger door. A man and woman are taken into custody.

10:50 p.m. -- Drug agents arrest a man for allegedly trying to sell fake "ice"
or smokeable meth on the streets of Shawnee.

11:15 p.m. -- Drug agents and Shawnee police stop two men walking on the city's
south side. They find smokeable meth, along with PCP, on the ground and believe
the suspects dropped the items. They can't prove it, though. Both men have
outstanding drug warrants so they're taken to jail anyway.

Contributing to this report: Anadarko Daily News, Bartlesville
Examiner-Enterprise, Daily Ardmoreite, The Duncan Banner, KOTV-Channel 6,
McAlester News-Capital & Democrat, Miami News-Record, Norman Transcript, Perry
Daily Journal, Poteau Daily News, Shawnee News-Star, Tulsa World