MERCHANTS CAN HELP IN METH FIGHT, POLICE SAY

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - Police are recruiting local merchants to help stem the
production of methamphe tamine - a drug police say is booming in popularity
in part because its ingredients are so easy to get.

Cold pills, lighter fluid and lithium batteries are used in producing meth.

"Think of all the stores you can stop in and purchase these precursors,"
said Sgt. Chuck Bunn, with the North Mississippi Narcotics Unit. "They are
everywhere."

Police are working closely with businesses to raise awareness if people are
buying large quantities of the drug's ingredients, Bunn said.

A few stores have established a three-box limit on cold pills and similar
limits on other products needed for manufacturing the drug.

"Our problem is, they can still drive right down the road, buy three more
boxes and keep on going until they have what they need," Bunn said. Once
all the ingredients are gathered, the person "cooks" the meth. The drug
makers usually look for a rural setting because the process emits strong
odors and involves potentially damaging chemicals.

Jeff Palmer, agent-in-charge at the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics' Tupelo
office, said people like to use the drug because it gives them a rush that
sometimes lasts for days.

"It's an upper to them," Palmer said. "They stay awake for an extended
period of time and feel energy like they've never felt before."

Bunn said the rise in meth-related arrests parallels the rise of
cocaine-related arrests in the late 1980s.

"We've gone from a few arrests a year to a lot of arrests in a short amount
of time," Bunn said. "It's kind of the same thing we saw with cocaine
between 1989 and 1992. We started off seeing small amounts, and the next
thing we know, it's on every street corner."

Most people being arrested on meth-related charges are middle-age,
blue-collar white men, Bunn said.