NIGHTMARE DRUG

Missouri now has the dubious distinction of being the methamphetamine
capital of the United States.

In 2001, law enforcement agencies around Missouri reported a combined
total of 2,133 meth lab incidents, 415 more reports than second-place
California. The new number of Missouri lab incidents is more than
double what was reported in 2000.

The administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Asa Hutchinson,
recently launched a 30-state tour to create nationwide awareness of
the growing meth problem. He visited Missouri on May 20 to discuss the
problem with dozens of law enforcement officials at the Cape Girardeau
Airport.

"One of the reasons that I think this tour is important is that meth
is not a big city problem," he said. "Many of the areas I'll visit on
this tour are smaller states that constantly struggle with the
enormous social and financial impact of meth."

He said those numbers are evidence of a definite methamphetamine
problem in Missouri, but he added they also show how law enforcement
is working hard in the fight against the drug and is making progress.

The nine counties in the Combined Ozarks Multi-jurisdictional
Enforcement Taskforce accumulated 237 meth lab incidents in 2001, more
than double those reported in 2000, according to statewide totals
supplied by the Missouri Highway Patrol.

*Polk County rose to four reports in 2001 from just one in
2000.

*Webster County had 15 reports of lab incidents in 2001, down from the
19 reports in 2000.

*Greene County had 94 reports in 2001 and 55 in 2000.

*Christian County had the most significant growth in lab incidents
reported by moving to 73 reports in 2001, up from just seven in 2000.

*Dallas County remained stable at four reports in 2001 and
2000.

*Cedar County reported 19 lab incidents in 2001 and two in
2000.

*Taney County reported 62 lab incidents in 2001 and seven in
2000.

*Stone County reported 17 in 2001 and 11 in 2000.

*Dade County rose to 11 reports in 2001 from two in
2000.

On the DEA's Web site, at www.usdoj.gov/dea, Hutchinson goes into
further detail about why meth has become such a dangerous drug to
rural areas like southwest Missouri and why it presents unique
challenges to law enforcement.

"Perhaps more than any other drug this country has experienced,
methamphetamine affects everybody in the community," he said. "The
first challenge of the meth trade is that we can't blame it on our
South American neighbors. ... It is locally produced in clandestine
laboratories.

"The second challenge meth presents is that international traffickers
are aggressively targeting rural areas. ... Traffickers think they can
escape law enforcement in rural areas. But we have to make sure that's
not true.

"The third challenge of methamphetamine lies in the very nature of the
drug. 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 takes over the whole
person. One former user described its effect on her life by saying, 'I
went against every moral and every belief I ever had when I was on
meth.'"

What is meth?

According to the DEA, methamphetamine is a toxic, addictive stimulant.
It dilates the pupils and produces temporary hyperactivity, euphoria,
a sense of increased energy and tremors.

Methamphetamine was first made in Japan in 1919. The Japanese gave the
drug to factory workers to increase their productivity in their
ammunition plants. The drug was used by the Nazis during World War II
to make their soldiers more alert and aggressive.

Today, the drug is "cooked" from a number of readily available
household chemicals and items and is sold through social networks. It
is manufactured in houses, barns, motel rooms, apartments, storage
facilities, vacant buildings, vehicles and wooded areas. It can be
smoked, snorted, injected and swallowed.

Meth is also commonly called speed, chalk, glass, ice, crystal and
crank. It is a white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily
dissolves in water or alcohol.

Buying meth is fairly affordable for drug users. In Missouri it costs
about $100 per gram, $250 for an eight-ball (3.5 grams) and about
$1,750 per ounce, according to a law enforcement official.

The cooks spread their poison through a network of family and friends,
often never meeting their drug-using customers.

"They've got their close friends to sell it; they're all in it
together," said former undercover drug officer Bob Fryman, who worked
for three years for COMET and several more for the Webster County
Sheriff's Department.

"From what I've seen in the three years I worked undercover, most
cooks aren't the sellers," he said. "They've got their people to go
out and do that for them. Most cooks refuse to meet strangers. They'll
tell them, 'Don't be bringing any strangers around me.' They refuse
because they may have been caught before by a stranger who turned out
to be an undercover officer."

The lure of quick, easy money is what brings most cooks into the
business, along with their own consuming meth habits.

"It takes so little to make so much," Fryman said. "With a $100
investment, come out of it with two or three hours of work and have
upwards of a $1,000 worth of meth to sell. There are studies showing
that every cook is showing eight to 10 more how to do it. That's why
we're losing ground. I agree with the national statistics coming out.
We're losing; we're not gaining."

As a former undercover officer, Fryman spent a lot of time in the
company of meth cooks and dealers. Their gritty lifestyle was not one
he enjoyed, but he had to dress and act the part in order to gain
their trust.

"You have to act like their friend, you have to learn how to walk the
walk and talk the talk," Fryman said. "You have to act like you're one
of them. The hard part is at the end of the day because you can't go
home and clean up. ... You can't cut off the long hair and then put it
back on. You can't cut the beard off and put it back on. You basically
have to live the part because you never know when you're going to run
into one of them on the street somewhere."

Fryman has recently left undercover work and currently works as a
reserve police officer for Fordland.