MEETING TO FOCUS ON METH PROBLEM

Meth: Drug Sparks Violence

Methamphetamine poisons the neighborhoods where it is cooked and places a
heavy burden on the legal system that prosecutes the manufacturers and
users. It tests the limits of the treatment centers and faith-based
organizations that counsel those whose lives have been torn apart by addiction.

To aid the fight against the drug, local and federal officials invite
people from every part of the community to a countywide meth summit Thursday.

Oklahoma County is one of four sites in the nation offering a summit.
District Attorney Wes Lane is host of the event in partnership with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, National Crime Prevention Council and
Community Oriented Policing Services.

The summit will involve more than 250 people ranging from law enforcement
officials and addiction treatment experts to members of neighborhood
associations and local churches.

Dick Carter, president of the Hartsdel Neighborhood Association in Del
City, plans to attend. He said he would like to work with his local police
to educate the rest of the community.

"I intend to take the information I get to our own neighborhood watch
association," Carter said. "That would be one of the primary goals is to
get that information out to the neighborhood."

Bob Surovec, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Oklahoma City,
said meth affects cities like no other drug.

"It's something that sort of transcends the whole community," Surovec said.
"You can find these little meth labs anywhere. It is so easy to manufacture
with no knowledge of chemistry that anyone who wants to make some for
themselves or for distribution to other people can do it just about anywhere."

Organizers hope participants will learn how to spot meth labs in their
communities and how to deal with the problems it creates.

Authorities seized 1,193 meth labs in Oklahoma last year. The number of
labs seized has grown every year and is on pace to do so again this year,
said Debbie Forshee, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma County District
Attorney's office.

Jim Copple, vice president of the crime prevention council, said teaching
community leaders about meth will make it easier to fight the growth of the
drug's popularity.

"When people are aware of the odors and the behavior around methamphetamine
manufacturing, they can get more engaged," Copple said.

Forshee said people need to know the dangers meth could pose to their
families. The process of making and using methamphetamine endangers those
who come in contact with or live nearby meth cooks and addicts.

Meth cooks get their ingredients from local retailers. If they can't or
don't want to pay for those ingredients, they steal them.

Cooking meth is a dangerous process that carries a risk of explosion and
emits toxic fumes. People who live near a meth lab can develop chronic
health problems from breathing those fumes.

"It is manufactured in our own neighborhoods -- neighborhoods that you
would not suspect," Forshee said. "There is not a neighborhood in this city
that has not had a meth lab in it. There have been labs in Nichols Hills.
There have been a lot of labs in Edmond. There are labs on college campuses.

"People really do not realize the level of contamination that a meth lab
causes to a home in which it is cooked and the decontamination that has to
happen for it to be livable."

The ease of production has made fighting the meth supply more difficult
than with other drugs.

Surovec said he worked meth labs from 1971 to 1991 in Houston.

"At that time, the procedures were a lot more sophisticated," Surovec said.
"The process was an extremely long process. It would take two to three days
to produce a batch of methamphetamine."

Today, an efficient cook can find all the ingredients he or she needs at
local retail stores and make a batch of the drug in a few hours, Surovec said.

Meth poses dangers to the community even after it is manufactured, Copple said.

"It is very addictive, and the use of it can produce extremely violent
behavior," Copple said. "The violence around crack, for example is mostly
around the sale of crack. The violence around methamphetamine is around the
use of it."

Meth causes users to feel paranoid. Forshee said police normally find
stockpiles of weapons at meth labs.

"There is not only the violent crimes and the guns and the paranoia that
surrounds it," Forshee said. "There is domestic abuse -- incredible amounts
of domestic abuse. Then you go into the child abuse and the drug-endangered
children. Violence permeates the whole thing."

Methamphetamine use increases theft and prostitution, Forshee said.

If the summit is successful, community leaders will take the information
they learn and share it with others, organizers said.

Copple said educating the public about methamphetamine might make it easier
to raise the money needed to fight the problem.

"By raising awareness, it hopefully will help leverage some additional
resources," Copple said.