RURAL AREA RIFE WITH METH LABS

Surge In Home Brew Seen In Bradford

ATHENS, Pa. (AP)-- The tree-covered mountains and lush valleys of Bradford
County make for an idyllic landscape, the very portrait of carefree living
in rural Pennsylvania. But the remote farms and abundant hiding places
along the Susquehanna River have earned this region an unflattering
nickname -- Meth Valley.

Last year, nine of the 19 methamphetamine labs broken up by the
Pennsylvania State Police were in Bradford County, a mostly rural county on
the New York border in northeastern Pennsylvania. In the first seven months
of 2002, four of 16 busted labs have been in Bradford County.

"We had a problem with coke, with weed and heroin," said Athens Police
Chief Larry Hurley. "But meth seems to have just taken over everything and
shoved it aside because it's cheap and easier to get to, it produces a
larger and quicker high, and we're right in the middle of where they're
making it. That's what really hurts us."

This isn't the first time Bradford County has struggled with a
methamphetamine problem. Meth was the hard drug of choice 20 years ago,
said District Attorney Stephen Downs, who at that time was an attorney
defending those charged with using meth.

"It's always kind of popped up periodically, but it seems in the last year
or two years, it's been more consistent," said Rita McDonald, a program
supervisor at Northern Tier Counseling, a regional mental health-services
provider.

Back then, an aggressive law enforcement effort coincided with a surge of
cocaine and heroin coming from the cities, effectively stamping out the
meth trade. "We went through a period of about 10 years when you just
couldn't find any meth in Bradford County," Downs said.

Meth returned a few years ago, riding a wave that already has made it a
scourge in the West and Midwest. The drug was no longer made in large
batches and distributed by gangs. Instead, meth makers were using the
so-called "Nazi method," mixing small batches by combining anhydrous
ammonia with ordinary household products, including lithium batteries,
matches and some cold medicines -- a process used to make meth during World
War II in Germany.

"Used to be you had to have a cooker, and they'd make about 2 pounds at a
time. It was very complex and dangerous, and you had to be pretty much a
professional," said Frank Noonan, regional director for the Bureau of
Narcotics at the state attorney general's office. "Now, there are new ways
of manufacturing where they can make it in 1- or 2- ounce quantities, and I
think that's what's fueled the methamphetamine use up there."

That makes meth uniquely suited to rural areas such as Bradford County.
Most of the nation's cocaine and heroin comes from overseas and is
distributed from major population centers. The myriad middlemen between
big-city drug lords and a place like Bradford County drive up the price and
make such drugs harder to get.

Meth makers, on the other hand, can cook a small batch for personal use --
or cook a little more to try to make some money -- with common household
items. The farms and forests provide unlimited hiding places for
clandestine labs.

And use is rising. Northern Tier Counseling tracks the drugs used by its
patients. Alcohol and marijuana always top the list, with cocaine and
heroin usually competing for the top spot among hard drugs. But in the year
ending June 30, 2001, methamphetamine came in fourth, right behind cocaine.

Meth users report a quick, euphoric rush almost immediately after taking
the drug and a heightened awareness that can last for hours. In addition to
those seeking a high, the drug is popular among athletes looking for a
boost in strength and people interested in losing weight or fending off
sleep. But meth is highly addictive; even occasional users can be prone to
violence; and longtime use can damage the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Because many drug patients come to counseling after serving jail sentences,
McDonald said, her agency's count usually lags actual use by a year or two.
Numbers for the most recent year haven't been compiled, but McDonald said
she expected the number of recovering meth users to continue rising.

The rising number of small-time users has fueled an increase in petty theft
locally, Hurley said, and many makers steal anhydrous ammonia, a crop
fertilizer, from farms over the border in upstate New York.

The manufacturing change also has changed how the drug is distributed,
Hurley said. Meth made in Bradford County still makes it to the cities,
from Elmira and Binghamton, N.Y., to Philadelphia, 225 miles to the south.
But most meth makers are simply fueling their own habits, occasionally
selling leftovers to pay for ingredients for the next batch.

"I don't think anybody's getting rich off it," Downs said. "Mostly, they're
putting their profits back into their own habits."

That decreases the competition that naturally develops between drug
dealers, and many meth makers learned the trade from a friend or
acquaintance who was making the drug.

"That's the problem up there -- you've got a lot of people showing a lot of
other people how to make it," said Bob Jud, resident agent in charge for
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Scranton. "It makes it
harder for us to identify these people. If you had one guy making it and he
had four or five people dealing for him, it would be a lot easier to
identify the organization. Here, there is no organization."

That hasn't stopped local law enforcement from going after the meth labs.
Hurley is supervisor for an interagency drug task force, organized through
the attorney general's office, that has taken on meth makers throughout
northeastern Pennsylvania. The task force is equipped with a tactical
Humvee, complete with gas masks and door rams, obtained from the Army.

They've recruited local department stores and pharmacies in the effort.
Many local retailers no longer sell popular meth ingredients, such as some
cold medicines, over the counter and provide security videos and
photographs of people who buy large quantities of starter fluid, lithium
batteries and other meth ingredients.

"This is a nice area. That's why we're so adamant about doing what we're
doing here," Hurley said. "Our kids are here, and that's reason enough to
try to stamp out meth once and for all."