METH'S COUSIN 'CAT' SLINKS INTO RURAL DRUG MAKERS' REPERTOIRE

A New Drug Based On An Old Formula is Finding Its Way into East Tennessee

Methcathinone, known on the street as "Cat," is being found more and more
around meth labs in East Tennessee that are being raided, authorities say.
And it can become slightly problematic for police as they try to prosecute
those who are caught with "Cat."

Joel Reece, head of the Knoxville office of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, said that roughly 40 percent of methamphetamine busts in
the past year have been methcathinone, but it is almost exclusively
restricted to East Tennessee.

"We don't see much (around the state)," Reece said. "They haven't found any
in Nashville."

A reason for the drug's sudden popularity in East Tennessee, Reece says, is
partly due to people moving to Tennessee from parts of the country where
the drug is popular. A University of Michigan student first made
methcathinone in 1989 after he found ingredients for the drug while he was
on an internship for a major drug company.

Soon afterwards, the drug became a popular recreational drug in Ohio and
Michigan and is now spreading to other parts of the country due to people
moving and due to manufacturers being able to easily find instructions on
how to make the drug on the Internet.

In 1992, the U.S. government classified methcathinone as a Schedule I drug.

Reece said the first people caught with methcathinone in Tennessee were
caught last year, and they were from Ohio.

Most of those who are caught learn the recipe for methcathinone first, and
then keep making it instead of switching to methamphetamine, he said.

"There's not a lot of variety in that business," Reece said. "They tend to
learn one thing and stick with it."

Methcathinone is also very specific within this area. It is being found
primarily in rural areas, so Knoxville is virtually clear of the drug, but
it also hasn't been found as far west as the Cumberland Plateau yet.

Like methamphetamine, it is known as a "poor man's cocaine."

"It's certainly not an inner-city or urban problem," Reece said. "It's
probably the old moonshiners who went to marijuana and now they're going to
meth."

Last week during a raid, the Roane County Sheriff's Department found two
one-quart mason jars filled with a liquid substance that was in the process
of being made into methcathinone.

Anderson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Lewis Ridenour said that
in 21 busts this year in Anderson County, 18 of them have been
methcathinone labs.

A meth lab raided Monday night in Marlow proved to be methcathinone,
Ridenour said.

Ed Kingsbury, narcotics investigator for the Knoxville Police Department
Organized Crime Unit, said their unit has not busted any "Cat" labs within
Knoxville, but they have stopped people on routine patrols who have
confessed to making methcathinone.

"We've stopped people who we've found to be stealing ephedrine, and a lot
of them have said they're making Cat," Kingsbury said. "It's easier to make
and not as explosive."

Kingsbury said the amount of people confessing to making these drugs has
been "50-50 methcathinone to methamphetamine."

Ridenour said he does not think the drug is being found more because of a
rise in use, though. He said he thinks the rise is because of police
starting to become more educated about the drug.

"A lot of it's not because of a rise," he said. " A lot of it's because of
our own awareness."

Ridenour, who also heads the Anderson County Methamphetamine Task Force,
said he and his officers prefer handling methcathinone labs to methamphetamine.

The risk for officers is significantly less than when dealing with a
methamphetamine lab, since methcathinone labs are not as sensitive as
methamphetamine labs.

Methcathinone itself is not as powerful as methamphetamine in use. While it
still can produce a "high," including feelings of euphoria, increased
alertness, increased heart rate, rapid breathing and dilated pupils, the
feeling is not quite as intense as methamphetamine.

The "recipe" itself for making "Cat" is very similar to that of
methamphetamine. The biggest difference, though, is that in methcathinone
one of the main ingredients, ephedrine, is oxidized, while in
methamphetamine the ephedrine is reduced.

Since methcathinone is a Schedule I drug, it can sometimes confuse police
who may try to prosecute a manufacturer under laws for methamphetamine,
which is a Schedule II drug.

"It can be a problem in prosecuting them," Ridenour said. "So that's why
it's important for us to educate ourselves about the drug."

But if ephedrine is found at the site of the raid, then prosecutors can
also prosecute under Schedule II laws, since ephedrine is classified as
Schedule II.

However it is found, law enforcement officers have a variety of laws they
can use in order to prosecute, Ridenour said, as methcathinone
manufacturers are trying to get smarter in their game of cat-and-mouse with
law enforcement.

Many meth labs are now being set up in hotel rooms and in the backs of
cars. A lab found Wednesday in Briceville was found in an old abandoned bus.

Since methcathinone is easier to make in such environments, it may explain
why it is being found more.

Whatever the case may be, methcathinone is now posing a problem for law
enforcement officers.

"It is a significant problem," Reece said.