METHAMPHETAMINE SCOURGE

It is known as "ice", "the devil's drug", "poor man's cocaine", "chalk",
"crank", "fire", "glass", "crystal", "ya ba" or simply "meth".

But it is not the variety of names given to methamphetamine that is causing
huge problems for drug enforcers, but its ease of production, widespread
appeal and devastating effects.

Its use has taken hold in Thailand - becoming more of a problem than
previously rampant Aids or even heroin abuse - as well as the western United
States and is threatening to become a global scourge.

The head of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Asa Hutchinson, has called it
rural America's "number one drug problem" and has launched a nationwide
awareness campaign and crackdown.

In America, the drug is mostly produced in small "cook-houses" while in
South East Asia's Golden Triangle it is big business that is taking over
from the traditional heroin trade.

But the addictiveness and destructive power of methamphetamine is the same.

Once seen as a harmless pick-me-up, methamphetamine is derived from the
stimulant ephedrine.

Sixty years ago, soldiers were given a good sniff to help them carry on and
Adolf Hitler had daily injections of the drugs. Centuries earlier, it was
used in traditional Chinese medicine and workers through the ages had used
it for its stimulating effects.

It produces temporary hyperactivity, euphoria, a sense of increased energy
as well as tremors.

Users find their heart rate, temperature, breathing and blood pressure
increase.

Violent behaviour is common with the drug also causing anxiety, depression,
drowsiness, paranoia and can kill on first use.

Continued use can cause personality changes, chronic paranoia, increased
blood pressure and brain damage.

In Asia, drugs lords in the far reaches of Burma began making
methamphetamine, known locally as "ya ba", to supplement their heroin trade.

But the drug's amazing popularity in Thailand - where some reports say one
in 12 people have tried it - have led to it supplanting heroin as the main
earner.

And the drug lords are now using their established heroin exports to
despatch methamphetamine - the Burmese form of which is generally produced
in pill form - to new markets in Asia and Europe.

Easy to Make

The history of meth in America is quite different, having been a
recreational diversion for motorcycle gangs until relatively recently.

But then Mexican and southern Californian kingpins got involved and the
production and use of methamphetamine has soared - partly because until now
it has been almost tolerated in various parts of society, not seen as being
as destructive as heroin or crack cocaine.

An attraction for producers was the ease with which the drug could be made.

All they needed were ingredients available legally such as pseudoephedrine
which is supplied for cold medicine manufacturers, lithium from batteries,
fertiliser and a few other chemicals.

Actually "cooking" the drug is very dangerous.

And dangers from the drug are not limited to those who may die making or
taking it.

Research has found children who live near production facilities - often in
farm outhouses - are exposed to dangerous fumes and toxic chemicals which
leach into the soil creating unknown problems for the future.

'Phenomenal Addiction Rate'

The US drug chief Asa Hutchinson described methamphetamine thus: "It is
intense, it is highly addictive, and it is overwhelmingly dangerous.

"The drug has a phenomenal rate of addiction, with some experts saying users
often get hooked after just one use.

"Recent studies have demonstrated that methamphetamine causes more damage to
the brain than heroin, alcohol, or cocaine," he said.

"Methamphetamine takes over the whole person.

"Social workers encounter meth-addicted parents who absolutely forget that
they even have children."