METH ADDICTS FILLING UP OKLAHOMA JAILS

MOORE, Okla. - Karen Holliday was high on methamphetamine most of a year,
while half of her teeth rotted and red sores covered her face. Skinny and
sickly, she tried to make herself eat but she was never hungry. She once
went without sleep for 15 days, not wanting to come down off her high.

Holliday, 35, was one of thousands of people caught up in a methamphetamine
epidemic that is contributing to the problem of overcrowding in jails
statewide. Oklahoma has more meth busts per capita than any other state,
according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Sheriffs across Oklahoma estimate from 50 to 90 percent of inmates are held
on drug charges, although no state agency keeps track of those statistics.
They say methamphetamine has been the most popular drug by far for the last
five years.

Murray County Sheriff Marvin McCracken said his jail is packed with meth
addicts.

"It's cheap, it's easy to get a hold of the chemicals to make it, and it
don't take a rocket scientist," he said. "It takes 2 hours and you've got a
finished product."

The ingredients in meth, cold pills, nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol,
salt and batteries, are cheap, legal and found in almost any drug store.
The recipe is on the Internet.

It's called crank and cooks can whip up batches of it in their bathrooms or
the back of vans within two hours.

"It's got to the point now where instead of setting up labs in homes, they
even catch them cooking it while they're driving down the street," said Don
Garrison, Oklahoma's jail inspection supervisor. "I haven't talked to a
sheriff in the last two years that doesn't have a drug problem."

Authorities blame the epidemic of the past five years on Oklahoma's
faltering economy and the flow of drugs from California to the Midwest.
Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas also have had increases in meth arrests in
the last five years, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The number of labs busted by Oklahoma drug task forces jumped from just 10
in 1994 to more than 700 in 2000, the latest year the OSBI data is
available. Oklahoma is one of only four states where the DEA will hold a
summit this year on meth, also called speed, ice and crystal.

Some call meth "redneck cocaine" because it is a highly addictive stimulant
that produces a euphoria similar to cocaine, but lasts longer, six to eight
hours compared to 20 to 60 minutes.

To make, it costs about $100 for one gram, roughly the contents of a sugar
packet, or $400 per ounce. The payoff is $2,000 to $2,500 per ounce.

Holliday said she once watched a 10-year-old child cook a batch of meth.
While it's easy to make, the cooking process releases vapors that are toxic
and can easily ignite.

She said one of her friends died while cooking meth in a closed bathroom
without air circulation.

Lawmakers have tried to fight the meth epidemic by stiffening prison
sentences for manufacturers, it's now a 20-year minimum for a manufacturing
conviction. A bill passed by the Legislature this year makes it a crime to
sell large amounts of cold medicine, such as Sudafed, knowing the customer
intends to cook meth.

Another new law that takes effect Nov. 1 will make it a felony punishable
by up to 15 years in prison for thieves caught stealing anhydrous ammonia
from farmers. Ranchers use the gas, held in tanks and pipelines, for
fertilizer. Meth addicts use it as a main ingredient.

The crackdown is resulting in more meth addicts locked up in the state's
overcrowded jails. The addicts have health problems that are leading to
increased inmate medical bills, said Stephens County Sheriff Jimmie Bruner.

"Meth takers are rotting from the inside," she said. "Everybody wants to go
to the dentist or the doctor after they are arrested."

Several counties have developed successful drug court programs that keep
nonviolent defendants out of prison as long as they successfully complete
counseling, drug tests and other program requirements.

Holliday didn't get sober until she was arrested in 1999. She lost all four
of her children to foster care, spent time in the Oklahoma County Jail and
now lives in a residential treatment center in Moore.

"I've had numerous opportunities to die," said Holliday, who wears a silver
cross necklace and keeps photographs of her children beside her bunk. "I've
been very fortunate that God hasn't called me home yet."

She has already graduated from the treatment center, but plans to stick
around until she's sure she can stay sober without a constant support
system. Then she'll try to get her children back.

Holliday, who started with marijuana and Jack Daniels at 14 years old,
won't stay in Oklahoma City because she's worried about driving past the
motels and houses where she used to get high.

She's getting her teeth fixed - a set of dentures to improve her smile. And
she's making friends who are sober. She's relapsed before. But this time,
she says, it'll be different.

"I've had some time to sit back and think," he said. "When you get that
peace and serenity within you, you wouldn't trade that for anything in the
world."