METH MAKERS' AMMONIA THIEVERY WORRIES POLICE

Some people will do anything for their fix.

If you're in the booming methamphetamine business, that means resorting to
desperate measures - risking death by a lethal gas or filling your trunk
with cold pills - to obtain the ingredients.

It's common knowledge among methamphetamine cooks that most of the
ingredients needed to whip up a fresh batch of meth can be bought at local
stores.

A few of the key components, however, have to be acquired elsewhere.

In the last few months a new trend has developed around the region that has
law enforcement agencies reaching out to local businesses that may be
unwittingly contributing to the manufacturing of the drug.

Members of the Knoxville Police Department are investigating a series of
incidents in which people have been siphoning anhydrous ammonia from an
industrial-size tank into containers ranging from kerosene tanks to milk jugs.

"In any type of manufacturing of meth, you'll have people trying to acquire
chemicals," said Knoxville Police investigator Jim Marcum. "And they will
get it any way they can."

Police are handcuffed by fire regulations that won't allow businesses to
lock the tanks up.

Without locks, ammonia thieves are able to access the dangerous compound by
simply turning a valve.

"We're caught in a real Catch-22," Marcum said.

The ammonia is a key ingredient in making meth and unavailable to buy by
members of the general public, Marcum said.

It is used primarily by farmers and also by businesses with large cold
storage areas or ice-making facilities.

Handled improperly, it can be lethal, says Knoxville Police investigator Ed
Kingsberry.

In its gas form, the compound can burn the lungs if inhaled.

In its liquid form, it can cause frostbite.

Mixed improperly with other chemicals or overcooked, the ammonia can become
very volatile and sometimes explode.

Still, methamphetamine producers from around the region have been
descending on Knoxville in search of the crucial ingredients.

The developing trend mirrors what much of the country has experienced.

Cooks procure or steal the necessary ingredients in large cities and then
escape to secluded rural areas of outlying counties to manufacture the
highly addictive stimulant.

"The whole state is just eat up with it," Marcum said.

The cooks risk serious bodily injury or even death, as was the case with a
pair of cooks recently discovered in Hawkins County, to produce the drug.

While the drug first started making its appearance in East Tennessee within
the past four years, it has been used, and abused, for decades.

First produced in 1919 by a Japanese pharmocologist, methamphetamine, like
many illicit drugs, does have a legitimate use.

In its prescribed from, desoxyn, methamphetamine can be used to combat
obesity and narcolepsy. It was used by both the Allied and Axis forces
during World War II to increase soldiers' alertness and keep pilots awake
during long sorties.

Now, however, it has been become "the poor man's crack."

Meth can be manufactured without a cocaine base and is therefore much
cheaper to make, Kingsberry said.

"Crack is easier to make but it's more expensive," Kingsberry said.

It is used mainly by poor people in rural areas, but it is slowly working
its way into the inner cities.

"Crack is still king, but in some of the other counties, it's safe to say
meth is king," Kingsberry said.

Police say the influx of meth has encroached on the turf normally held by
cocaine and crack dealers.

"The crack dealers don't want to see this stuff come in," Kingsberry said.
"It kills their profit margin."

It takes less than $200 in supplies and a willingness to go the extra mile
for the anhydrous ammonia and ephedrine.

Ephedrine is the base ingredient in cold and sinus medications like
Sudafed, which is now being sought in bulk by meth cooks.

"They go into the store and buy five bottles at a time," Kingsberry said.

Cooks often go on what police calls "runs" where they go from store to
store filling their vehicles with any product with ephedrine.

"We pulled over this one guy with a trunk filled with cold pills,"
Kingsberry said.

The cooks' motivation remains strong: the agonizing itch of addiction and
the 1,000 percent profit margin.