THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE

With the illegal stimulant methamphetamine striking the state with great force,
hooking addicts, destroying families and tying up law enforcement operations,
it is up to forensic chemists to test the increasing evidence investigators
gather from the scenes of meth lab raids, which are increasingly common in West
Alabama and across the state.

Lisa Cary enters the office each day already five months behind schedule. She's
strapped for time, but more and more work continues to arrive daily. She
doesn't even have the guarantee that her job will exist next year.

Cary is one of two chemists working at the Tuscaloosa County division of the
Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, and she's not alone in her situation.
The circumstances she finds herself in ring true in forensic science divisions
throughout the state, as the agency falls on dire times.

Cary couldn't be busier. With the illegal stimulant methamphetamine striking
the state with great force, hooking addicts, destroying families and tying up
law enforcement operations, it is up to Cary and other forensic chemists to
test the increasing evidence investigators gather from the scenes of meth lab
raids, which are increasingly common in West Alabama and across the state.

One recent morning, Cary opened a small plastic bag stuffed with white,
ice-like crystals, dug out a mound of the substance, placed some testing liquid
on top, and waited with excitement. She appreciates pure meth, and hates the
more common, botched batches that take an exorbitant amount of time to test.

"Man, you just love to see this stuff come in. It's easy to work o boom, boom o
and you're done like that," Cary said. "But you're not always lucky."

In fact, forensic scientists are rarely lucky in the battle against meth, which
is reaching epidemic proportions in Alabama.

As the presence of the drug steadily grows, the forensics department continues
to battle case backlogs. The steady influx of meth cases has further
complicated the problem, since chemists must devote large amounts of time to
each.

Meanwhile, the already understaffed department is facing a budget crisis, which
could mean that some of the 110 forensic scientists could lose their jobs. Such
losses could translate into an even greater forensic backlog, while at the same
time jamming the courts.

The Tuscaloosa division, which receives about 150 drug cases each month,
remains about five months behind in testing.

In late July, Cary opened envelopes containing more than a dozen vials, and
prepared herself for the task of testing the unidentified liquids. The
envelopes, from the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force, were dated February 4,
2003.

"This is all one case, and believe me, this is not a big one," she said,
removing more and more objects from the stack of large, brown envelopes. "It
would be nothing to get 50 items in a meth lab."

When police shut down meth labs, they send the forensic scientists practically
every liquid and every piece of paraphernalia they find because it is difficult
to identify what is important to the case without testing, said John McDuffie,
the director of the Tuscaloosa forensics division and its second chemist.

"Which means now, instead of having a nice little drop to analyze, we've got 20
bottles of liquid that we've got to go through," he said.

Cary removed powder from one envelope, aluminum foil from another. She dropped
fluid on the powder, and watched it turn brown.

"So we have a good shot of it being meth right now, but it's not good meth,"
she said.

Though the testing, undertaken both in the lab and by machine, is
time-consuming, McDuffie said he believes he and Cary can tackle the backlog.
But McDuffie must also handle administrative duties as the center's director,
which sometimes takes him away from the laboratory.

"It would be nice to have another chemist, but that is not a reality," McDuffie
said.

The reality is the department could lose several chemists. Should voters reject
Gov. Bob Riley's $1.2 billion tax and accountability package in the referendum
Sept. 9, the state Department of Forensic Sciences stands to lose 18 percent of
its $7.65 million in state funding. The department receives funding through
several other means, but the majority comes from the state.

The department would lose 40 employees, from scientists to support staff, plus
cuts in the services it provides.

Making the possibility even more nightmarish is that the department is already
understaffed, said Taylor Noggle, the director of the state Department of
Forensic Sciences. The department now has 175 employees, but needs about 230,
he said.

"We're going to be devastated," Noggle said. "The current backlogs are just
going to soar, because we're not going to have the people to work the cases.
It's just going to simply soar, that's the only word for it."