METH-MAKING PROBLEMS

Crystal Methamphetamine Production, Use On The Rise In Area.

Methamphetamine-related arrests are getting to be a daily occurrence in the
area and narcotics officers believe they know why: The ingredients needed
to make the drug are easy to get.

"One reason we are seeing a large increase in the manufacture of meth in
Tupelo and in this area is that up and down Gloster and Main streets, 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."

Ingredients like cold pills, starting fluid and lithium batteries are used
in producing the drug and can be purchased at nearly every convenience or
drug store.

"We have gone out and worked closely with businesses in our jurisdiction
and tried to educate them about the ingredients they need to be on the
lookout for when people purchase them in large quantities," 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.

The process

Narcotics officers asked that the exact production process not be
publicized, but there are a number of ways to produce it. The officers were
helpful in explaining the path followed by most people involved in
producing the drug.

Once all the necessary ingredients are gathered, the person needs to find a
good location to "cook" the meth. Most people usually look for a rural
setting because the process emits strong odors and involves potentially
damaging chemicals.

"If they do it in a residential area, their neighbors usually complain that
they are smelling gas," Bunn said. "But it's really the suspect cooking meth."

It is also dangerous to produce the drug inside a house because most people
who "cook" it don't want to let the odors slip out of the house.

"But what they are doing is keeping explosive vapors in a confined area,"
Bunn said. "It's one of the most dangerous things people can do." When
production is finalized, the cook usually winds up with a batch that is
about an ounce to an ounce-and-a-half. It sells for around $100 per gram.

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 quick 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."

Similar problems

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."

The increase in meth-related arrests has not helped the state's
prison-overcrowding problem, said Dennis Farris, assistant district
attorney in the first judicial district.

"It's the emphasis now," Farris said. "I don't know how the state is going
to be able to fund keeping the people incarcerated under the penalties they
have given us. We have to do something other than arrest, convict and lock up."

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

"Statistics show there are mostly white people using (meth)," Bunn said.
"It's like 10 years ago when crack cocaine really hurt the black population."