RED-NECK COCAINE

[Photo] An undercover Broken Arrow police officer collects evidence from
unmarked containers found at a home methamphetamine lab in January 2001.
The number of clandestine labs found in the Tulsa area dropped slightly
last year but the drug continues to be a problem across the state. MICHAEL
WYKE / Tulsa World File

Oklahoma's Dangerous Speed Trap

While Oklahoma remains firmly in the jaws of the methamphetamine monster,
the incidence of clandestine labs discovered in Tulsa dropped slightly last
year.

The news isn't as good in Oklahoma City where 200 labs were discovered in
2001. A national summit on the subject is set there for this summer. A
similar summit was held in Tulsa last fall.

While the problem isn't going away -- Oklahoma remains in the top five
states in production of meth -- law enforcement is far better trained to
detect and handle labs than in the past and the public is also better
informed about their dangers.

There still aren't many answers, however, on how to reduce meth use.

As Sen. Don Nickles said last week after meeting with organizers of the
Oklahoma City summit: "This is so darn depressing. I had hoped this would
have been more positive. We need to be more invigorating in combating this
problem."

So much for understatement.

Methamphetamine is made from cold remedies, fertilizer, battery acid and
other chemicals that could be put to better use poisoning rats or
unclogging pipes. Instead it ends up in people, causing an epidemic of use,
especially in poor whites.

In the past eight years, meth cases rose by 8,000 percent in Oklahoma
compared with a 300 percent rise in meth arrests nationally.

Last year law enforcement dismantled 1,193 clandestine labs across the
state with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation responding or
analyzing chemicals found in 900 labs. Thanks to additional funding, OSBI
is able to train more police across the state to respond to labs, which
frees up agents to tackle analysis of drugs and to reduce a case backlog.

Tulsa Police last year found about 20 fewer labs than in 2000, when 150
labs were discovered.

"I keep knocking on wood" that a downward trend holds, said Tulsa Police
Maj. Bill Wells, of the Special Investigations Division.

Other help is needed from other segments of society if the city hopes to
further reduce meth use, Wells said at the Tulsa summit meeting. "It's not
just a police problem."

Meth cooks run volatile operations, known by police as "Beavis and Butthead
labs," hoping to make a lot of quick money. Crude and dangerous, labs often
are detected because "crank chemists," are inexpert at handling the
ingredients that go into their brew. Fires and explosions are common as are
the noxious and hazardous fumes.

Earlier this year, the Hazardous Materials Unit of the Tulsa Fire
Department was called to Sandburg Elementary School in east Tulsa to
neutralize acidic chemicals, the remnants of a meth lab dumped on the
playground. Discarded labs and waste are left in ditches, dumpsters, motel
rooms, state and local parks, abandoned buildings, residences and cars.

Each time police investigate a lab an officer puts on $100 worth of
disposable gear. Multiply that cost times four or five officers and throw
in the expense of hazardous chemical and waste disposal, additional
equipment, salary, overtime and training and the cost to taxpayers goes up
to $3,000 to $5,000 per lab, Wells said.

"And that doesn't begin to touch the real issue of what meth addiction
costs the community."

Last fall, David Wayne Russell, 18, received a nine-year sentence for
manufacturing meth and injuring a child. His 2-year-old niece received
severe chemical burns from her uncle's lab. In 2001, 800 children across
the nation were discovered at labs where toxic fumes as well as spills can
cause lung and brain damage. The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates
that 65 percent of meth labs are operated with children nearby.

In Sapulpa last year, two mothers were using methamphetamine when a
2-year-old, touching an unattended rifle, shot a 5-year-old at a trailer
where meth was produced.

Experts estimate that up to 30 percent of the working population has
experimented with methamphetamine, which came into vogue more than 50 years
ago when the Japanese gave it to workers to increase factory output during
World War II.

Nothing good can come from use of the drug, which can lead to a range of
health problems including psychosis. Last week, a preliminary hearing for a
defendant accused of beheading his roommate unfolded in grisly detail here.
A detective testified that Billy Ralph Baldwin admitted that he was
responsible for killing Anthony Paul Brooks. A psychologist noted in a
recent report that Baldwin's "methamphetamine abuse has likely had a
severely detrimental effect on his mental and emotional function."

The violence that also comes with meth production was apparent Thursday as
a double-homicide was investigated near Sapulpa. OSBI spokeswoman Kym Koch
said evidence of a meth lab and TV monitors used for outdoor surveillance
were found in a trailer behind the couple's home.

While police and citizens become better educated about the dangers of
illicit labs, the people running them don't appear to be following suit.

"These labs are as crude as you can get ... a couple of pickle jars and a
little gas generator," Wells said. We find formulas at these labs where the
cookers absolutely got the chemicals wrong. The formula will call for
muriatic acid and they'll go out and find some other chemical that sounds
like that or starts with an M. That's why we have fires and explosions.
They don't have the foggiest idea what they cooking and people don't have
any idea what they're shooting or snorting."

Julie DelCour is an editorial writer for the Tulsa World.