CRYSTAL METH: COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

It has been an epidemic in America and a major problem in many other
parts of the world. Now it may be our turn to be hit by the world's
most addictive drug, says Carol Midgley

Even in these mutable times Stoney Middleton is about the last place
that you would expect to find a Class A drugs factory. In the
Derbyshire Peak District, overlooked by spectacular cliffs, it is the
prototypal rural English village dotted with allotments, grey stone
cottages, a tiny post office and a hairdressing salon which still uses
old-fashioned beehive dryers.

But it is here that police recently discovered what is believed to be
the biggest laboratory for producing crystal methamphetamine found in
the UK. If any of the locals passing by the industrial unit on the
Rock Mill Business Park noticed a distinctive smell akin to cat urine
or burnt rubber, or saw an unusually high number of discarded Sudafed
boxes both among the telltale signs of crystal meth production
they were unlikely to have been alarmed.

They have probably never even heard of crystal meth and certainly
wouldn't recognise the paraphernalia that surrounds its production.
Possibly neither have you. Its use in Britain is still relatively
small. But it is a hideously destructive substance that is said to be
the most addictive drug in the world. It has wreaked havoc in America
and now it is starting to creep into Britain.

So worried are police about the drug taking hold here that Sudafed,
Day Nurse Capsule and other popular flu remedies may soon become
prescription-only medications. There is increasing concern that
pseudoephedrine and ephedrine found in over-the-counter
decongestants is being extracted to make the drug methylamphetamine.
Last week the Medicines and Health-care Products Regulatory Agency
launched a consultation process to find out whether the availability
of medicines containing pseudoephedrine which also include Nurofen
Cold and Flu tablets should be restricted in Britain.

Some 12 million Americans are estimated to have used crystal
meth aka Ice, Tina and Nazi Crank (so called because Adolf Hitler
was rumoured to inject it every day) a drug which can be smoked,
snorted, swallowed or injected. It greatly heightens sexual arousal
but over time mercilessly ravages the body. It is a major problem in
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. In many areas of the US,
such as Georgia, it is a state priority. In one Arizona town a
special school has been set up for meth-addicted teenagers. The New
York police chief Anthony Izzo told the House of Commons Select
Committee on Science and Technology: "Crystal meth makes crack
cocaine look like a Hershey [chocolate] bar."

Though British police have been warned to expect an epidemic like
America's since the early 1990s it somehow never came, probably
because of lack of availability and the fashion for Ecstasy, cocaine
and heroin. It has been used sporadically as a club drug and by
sections of the gay community, but somehow it did not take off as a
major drug of choice.

But now there are signs that this is changing. In December 2006
Timothy Morgan, 41, became the first person in Britain to be convicted
of producing crystal meth. He had "cooked up" so much of the drug on
the Isle of Wight where he lived that police say it would have sold
for UKP1.3 million, probably on the South Coast. Other sporadic finds
of the drug have been made in Wales, Lincolnshire and London. In
January the Government recognised its looming danger and reclassified
it as a Class A drug.

Crystal meth's effect on the body is uniquely horrific, as illustrated
by the police's famous "before and after" photographs of users whose
grotesquely deteriorating looks are charted over years of use, see
below. The skeletal, PoW-type features, the bloodily scabbed skin, the
accelerated ageing process, the tooth rot, known as "meth mouth", are
all on show. The drug denies the user sleep, sometimes for up to two
weeks at a time. It creates a spectacular high but this hampers the
brain's production of dopamine (the feel-good chemical) and users
become increasingly dependant on it to feel normal. Some talk of
becoming addicted from the very first hit. Experts say that it results
in a state of psychosis.

Here are some of the things that people who have taken it say. "It
makes you feel bright and shiny"; "You are suddenly the most
attractive, interesting, confident fr on the planet"; "Sometimes just
thinking of the drug is a huge turn-on"; "It is the vilest drug I have
ever come across"; "It destroys you. It destroys everything."

The Peak District and the Isle of Wight may seem odd places in which
to find factories for a drug like this but actually it makes perfect
sense. The process is so toxic and odorous that remote, rural spots
are the best places to operate unnoticed. As Steve Holme, project
manager of Derbyshire Police's Drug Mapping Project, says, not only is
there a huge risk to people making and taking the drug, it also
endangers those living and working near a "lab". The ingredients are
highly explosive (the reason that half of the labs in Los Angeles are
found is because they have burst into flames), and the fumes caused by
the cooking process are poisonous. It took Derbyshire officers several
days to close down the factory found at Stoney Middleton because of
the volatile nature of the chemicals found. Toxic chemicals may have
been dumped in the nearby countryside.

Even though its presence is still small, Holme talks to neighbourhood
watch groups to alert them to the classic signs of meth production:
red or yellow staining on the clothes, large amounts of discarded
decongestant packets, permanently blacked-out windows on a house and a
twitchy demeanour. Evidence indicates that the number of labs can
suddenly take off dramatically. In Australia and New Zealand they have
increased by 100 per cent year on year. Meth's appeal, he says, is
that while the effects of crack cocaine, for instance, last for only
about ten minutes, a crystal meth hit lasts for about eight hours. And
it is about the same price as cocaine UKP40-UKP45 a gram.

DI Clive Merrett, one of the detectives in Hampshire who built the
case against Morgan, says the amount of energy it gives the user is
phenomenal. "In America, when you watch the news and someone has been
shot but they are still walking towards the police they are on Ice,
which is crystal meth. If it does take a hold in this country we have
a serious problem. You get a high with this drug but you also get the
most incredible low."

Sky, a 36-year-old American, who now drives a school bus, knows all
about that. She also knows about the shame that crystal meth use
leaves behind. It lowers sexual inhibition to such a point that she
did things which now disgust her.

"That stuff makes you someone you are not. I did things I'm not proud
of," she says. "It lowers your inhibitions to the lowest point they
can go. I don't even want a Playboy mag in my house I dislike
pornography but this drug lets you do lots of things you just
wouldn't (normally) do. Your morals and values go completely. It just
keeps raising the bar. It is a vicious, vicious cycle."

Sky (this is the name she uses on her meth users' website) lives in
Missouri. She was offered crystal meth by a female friend and was, she
says, instantly hooked. "I felt good about me," she says. "I felt
confident." But it wasn't long before the more unpleasant side-effects
kicked in. One is that users scratch and pick themselves obsessively
hence the term "speed bugs" coined by amphetamine users as the
toxins seep through the skin. "I was once awake for 16 days. I was in
a zombified state doing things by instinct," says Sky. "There is a lot
of sweating. I lost 60lb in a month, going from a size 14 to a size 5.
My eyes were sunk, I was skeletal. There was a time I picked myself so
badly I looked like I has crusted mosquito bites all over my body. The
stuff is trying to get out of your pores. It's toxic; it's like
drinking half a pint of battery acid."

She managed to keep her job as a bartender throughout her six-year
crystal meth abuse despite being forced to live for a while in her
car, a Chevy Cavalier. She and her then husband were co-users and she
knew that to get clean she had to leave him.

"I knew either me or him was going to die," she says. She has not used
the drug for eight years and deliberately chose a job (the school bus
driver) that she knew would entail her being regularly drugs-tested.
Getting off it is hard. Very hard. Because the low is so severe and so
prolonged many people can't afford the "risk" of getting clean lest
they lose their jobs or relationships. "You cannot raise yourself for
weeks and weeks sometimes. You cannot get out of bed, literally."

In America there are already state laws ruling that Sudafed and
similar products must be stored behind pharmacy counters. Timothy
Morgan was buying the substances on the internet where umpteen
"recipes" can be found. Few realise how dangerous the manufacturing
process is and many have been killed by ensuing explosions.

And do not be fooled into thinking that this is an "underclass" drug.
The singer Rufus Wainwright has admitted to once having had a crystal
meth addiction, as has Stacy Ferguson, the female voice of the Black
Eyed Peas.

The writer David Scheff recounted his own teenage son's horrendous
meth addiction which resulted in him stealing from the piggy bank of
his eight-year-old brother. Richard Cazaly, the man whom police hold
responsible for stabbing Abigail Witchalls, was a known crystal meth
user.

The drugs charity Drugscope urges that we do not overreact to the
crystal meth issue, emphasising that its prevalance is still small and
that we will not necessarily suffer an epidemic like America's. Harry
Shapiro, spokesman for DrugScope, said the fact that crystal meth
creates such a prolonged "hit" might mean that dealers would be less
willing to sell it as it would not be as profitable as, say, crack
cocaine. Also crystal meth might be too strong for mainstream
amphetamine users. "Everyone needs to be vigilant," he says, "but it
can take a long time for drugs to come into mainstream use. We first
saw Ecstasy in this country in 1985 but it took three or four years
until the general public had heard if it."

But in a recent issue of Police Review officers expressed concern that
an epidemic could be brewing.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Ashwood, of the ACPO methamphetamine
working group, which comprises officers from various forces plus a
London judge and a member of the US drug enforcement administration,
tells the publication: "Most people can take cocaine, ecstasy, even
heroin and manage their own habits but meth is a different animal and
that is the problem. Not every meth user becomes addicted but compared
with cocaine, crack and heroin, meth is associated with higher levels
of addiction, antisocial behaviour and crime rates.

"It is difficult to predict an epidemic but I think all the factors
are here. We are the biggest amphetamine consumers in the world,
bigger than Australia and even the US, so where does that leave us
with meth? Does it leave us with a bigger opportunity to develop a
problem?" DI Merrett says he is surprised that so far there have been
so few court cases. "It amazes me there haven't been more
prosecutions," he says. "If it is here on the Isle of Wight then it's
in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool."

Meanwhile, in Derbyshire the investigation continues. Holmes and
others are arranging special conferences for social workers, probation
officers and other key workers in the area, warning them to be
vigilant for the signs of crystal meth production.

As Sky says, the road to recovery is long and the trip just isn't
worth it. "The depression I have been through [since quitting] is
quite unbelievable," she says. "To be honest I still think about it.
It's a horrible drug but there are some things I still wish I could
do. I loved the feeling. I've put on weight since I quit. I'm a size
18 now.

"I say there are three sides to me: before crystal meth, during it and
after it. It ruined everything. It takes about a week to get it out of
your system but mentally it stays with you for ever."