METH THREAT WORRIES POLICE

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS -- Ten years ago methamphetamine was a drug unknown to
many people. Now, the number of users and makers have spread through
Southern Illinois and much of the heartland, driven by a near
religious-like addiction that law enforcement is scrambling to squelch.

Methamph-etamine is the number one concern of all Southern Illinois law
enforcers.

Union County Sheriff Jim Nash said 10 of the 12 arrests he made in a 13-day
period in July were related to the use, production or selling of methamph-
etamine. And that track record is only a taste of the larger meth problem
plaguing Union County and the rest of Southern Illinois.

Nash said methamphetamine use and production is so thick right now, it
wouldn't take anyone long to find some. "It's worse than it has ever been,"
he said.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant drug that affects the body's central nervous
system in the brain. Related to amphetamine but stronger in nature, meth
has limited use in the medical field to treat obesity.

On the street methamphetamine goes by such names as "speed," "chalk,"
"ice," "crystal" or "glass." Abusers take the drug orally, by snorting it,
injecting it or smoking it. Users generally experience a high that lasts
eight to 12 hours.

Since coming to the Midwest in 1995, methamphetamine production has spread
through Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and any state that holds a high
concentration of farmland, which is a commodity to small meth manufacturers.

Tom McNamara is the former director of the Southern Illinois Enforcement
Group, an agency that helps law enforcement officials in seeking out
drug-related offenders. McNamara still works with SIEG as a consultant and
says methamphetamine is a drug situation unlike any other law enforcers
have ever faced.

"It's a need-driven operation," he said. "Very rarely with small batch labs
is profit the motivation."

McNamara said meth operations are not huge organizations, although the drug
is produced in other areas of the United States by larger crime syndicates.
Meth labs in Southern Illinois are generally operated by six to eight
people, he said. One person is usually designated to cook the substances,
while the others gather the necessary materials to produce it.

While there are thousands of recipes for making methamphetamine, McNamara
said the most common method of production used by the small "mom and pop"
labs in Southern Illinois is known as the "Nazi" method.

The recipe calls for the use of lithium and anhydrous ammonia. McNamara
said officials call it the Nazi method based off stories that the person
who found the original recipe claimed it had a swastika on the document. He
said it was never proven but has been adopted as an easy identification for
law enforcement.

Components for the recipe can be found in regular retail stores. Lithium
can be obtained through batteries and anhydrous ammonia can be siphoned
from tanks on a farmer's property, McNamara said.

"It is a cheap drug to make, and the amount of its high is more than crack
cocaine," he added.

The common street value of meth in Southern Illinois is $100 per gram.

A three-fold threat

McNamara said methamphetamine is dangerous in its use, its production and
its effects.

Using methamphetamine can cause extreme neurological disorders, including
what McNamara calls "tweaks," which is an effect on the body similar to
those caused by Parkinson's disease.

Producing meth involves mixing volatile chemicals that can and do explode
in some cases. McNamara said since police are now keeping a close watch on
anhydrous ammonia tanks to curtail meth producers, people are now
attempting to make their own anhydrous ammonia, which can literally draw
water molecules from the body.

Even after the meth is made, the chemicals and waste products left pose a
serious health threat to those around the area.

The disturbing aspect to McNamara is even in the face of all these dangers,
meth users don't care.

"The most shocking aspect of this drug use is the absolute commitment
people have to it above anything else," he said. "These people are risking
their lives and their health, and they just don't care."

As far as meth users are concerned, they have been to heaven, McNamara
said. It then becomes a mission for them to get back.

McNamara said that fact is a strong indicator of why meth encounters by law
enforcement officials have spread so widely and so quickly. The
addiction-based drive to produce the substance has caused the problem to
"mushroom" in Southern Illinois, he said.

Johnson County Sheriff Elry Faulkner said methamphetamine has gained
popularity over the regular rotation of narcotics.

"The meth arrests now outnumber the marijuana arrests here," he said.
"There are just so many people who have small labs. They just cook all over
the place."

Faulkner said the county has been handing out some strict sentences to
people convicted on meth-related charges. He said they are trying to send a
message, but it is one apparently not being received, given the frequency
of the problem.

Carbondale police chief R.T. Finney said officers don't see much trouble
with meth labs in the city, but they do bring in a number of people for
using the drug.

Finney said people generally come to the city to buy necessary items for
producing meth, which requires retail stores to keep a close watch on the
kinds of items people buy.

"In Carbondale they are very much aware and responsive to the problem,"
Finney said. He said store managers will generally call in suspicious
activity or notify authorities of people shoplifting certain items.

However, Nash -- the Union County sheriff -- said some meth users are
getting so desperate for their next fix, their actions are becoming more
dangerous. "It used to be you might worry about your home being burglarized
when you're away; now it's getting to the point where they are more likely
to try something when you're at home," he said.

A war on meth?

Saline County circuit judge Brocton Lockwood, who gained notoriety in the
1980s' Chicago federal judicial sting Operation: Graylord, now focuses a
good portion of his time on the problem of meth addicts and addiction.

It was something that caught him by surprise. "When I started in 2000, I
didn't have any meth cases," Lockwood said. "Now two-thirds of the felony
docket is meth-related charges."

The judge has seen more than his share of methamphetamine addicts, and he
said he can't help but pity them.

"I'm sympathetic towards them," he said. "They are worse off than people
who have AIDS or leprosy."

Lockwood has seen people without fingers, because accidents with the
anhydrous ammonia have frozen them off. He has seen people age 44 look
older than 65-year-olds. And he knows meth addicts become so paranoid and
hallucinate to the point they become a danger to themselves and others.

"It's not going down; it's getting worse," Lockwood said. "Because (meth)
doesn't cost anything, they use all they can make."

Lockwood said people are becoming hopelessly addicted. He said he fears it
could get to the point where meth addicts and meth making could become a
hazard to everyone.

"I'm very fearful that some huge, catastrophic event is going to happen
before people take notice," he said.

By catastrophic event, he said he meant a large explosion, because of the
volatile chemicals produced in methamphetamine production.

Lockwood's opinion to "nip the problem in the bud" is to have ephedrine, a
precursor substance used in meth making, available only by prescription.

Education on the subject is equally important, he said. Lockwood currently
travels throughout Illinois, giving talks to circuit judges about
methamphetamine cases. He said that type of knowledge needs to spread into
the communities, to parents and to schools.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, said people in the community are already
talking about the problems of methamphetamine addiction.

"I know we have a meth problem," he said. "That seems to be one of the top
concerns of law enforcement."

However, concerns reach beyond the actual meth addicts themselves and into
whether law enforcers have enough funding to battle in this new front in
the war on drugs.

Bradley recently helped fight a 60 percent funding cut for Southern
Illinois Enforcement Group in July, which officials say would have closed
the facility. In the end the organization only saw a 10 percent freeze in
funds for the 2004 fiscal year. SIEG covers drug enforcement in Union,
Jackson and Williamson counties.

"The Southern Illinois Enforcement Group has been responsible for about 17
percent of meth arrests throughout the state," Bradley said. "That's a
success story."

In Union County, Nash said his deputies couldn't handle the number of meth
lab cases they get without aid from the SIEG drug officers.

Bradley said the state may be in hard times financially, but it cannot
afford to cut facilities that aid law enforcement in fighting such a
widespread epidemic as meth use.

"We're in a tough situation; but we've withstood the tide," Bradley said.
"We didn't lose ground in the war on meth."