THE MAKING OF METH

James Cole (not his real name) moved to Arkansas from California hoping to
escape the drug methamphetamine, but he found that the drug and its
manufacture are more prominent here than on the West Coast.

"It's an epidemic. I could go out and purchase pounds of it," Cole, a
former meth addict turned police informant, said.

That statement is not an exaggeration, according to Clark County
Prosecuting Attorney Henry Morgan. He said Arkansas has one of the highest
per capita methamphetamine use statistics in the nation.

"We are way below average in Clark County. We haven't had the proliferation
of labs like Saline County and White County," Morgan said, "but it could
easily become a problem."

Arkansas State Police releases statistics annually from methamphetamine
arrests. In 2000, 780 labs were seized across the state. That equals one
lab for every 3,270 people. Nationally, the number of labs seized averages
out to one lab for every 39,000 people.

"To put that in perspective, if Arkansas' methamphetamine problem was at
the national average, we would seize 66 labs annually," the report stated.
"Or, if California had the same number of labs per capita, they would seize
over 10,000 labs annually." California seized about 3,000 labs in 2000.

Methamphetimine is easy and inexpensive to produce. That's the reason for
the popularity of the illegal drug, Morgan said. A trip to a feedstore or a
grocery store can provide all the ingredients.

"It started up in Missouri - this method of making methamphetamine that can
be done in your kitchen with ingredients you buy at Wal-Mart. It's kind of
crossed the border," Morgan said.

He said that methamphetamine use and manufacturing spread like a contagious
disease. One person learns to cook the drug and then becomes the teacher.
Suddenly, a community that once was drug free has a growing population, not
only of meth addicts, but of meth cooks.

Morgan recounted a specific instance in Clark County in which a woman was
sent to boot camp for possession of meth. She returned home less than a
year later having not been reformed, but having learned how to manufacture
meth. Much of the methamphetamine problem in the northwest part of Clark
County can be traced to that woman teaching friends, who teach friends, and
the problem multiplies exponentially.

"Now we have a problem with everyone up there knowing how to make meth, and
they all learned it from this woman," Morgan said. "This could happen to
anybody."

The invasion of meth began with the U.S. Government. With its primary
ingredient being cold medicine, methamphetamine was prescribed to World War
II bomber crews as a decongestant, with the side effect of keeping pilots
awake and alert long enough to fly to Germany and back, Morgan said.

The product was not unique to America. Kamikaze pilots, who daringly flew
their planes into military targets on suicide missions, were found to have
"very, very high levels of methamphetamine," said Brian Roberts (not his
real name), Clark County's undercover Group 6 narcotics agent.

The drug was not unique to World War II. Arkadelphia Police Chief Al
Harris, who was a member of the U.S. Marines, said that speed, a street
name for meth, and other uppers were popular with the military in the
Vietnam War, although it was not administered by the government.

As a result, the original meth addicts were ex-military, particularly the
Hell's Angels, Roberts said. These men returned to California to find that
there was not much for them to do.

"They can't get a job because they don't have any skills. They don't have
the adrenaline dump anymore because they're not bombing, so they start
buying Harley Davidson motorcycles where they can go fast and be free. Now,
all they have to do is take care of the addiction," Roberts said.

The men hired a chemist to make the same substance they had received during
the war. Roberts said that was the birth of an epidemic. It was not long
before they had methamphetamine readily available, but they had to fund
their addictions, which resulted in the sale of meth and the spread of the
drug.

Clark County Sheriff Troy Tucker estimated that about seven to eight years
ago, the county began to see an influx of meth use.

As the drug's popularity began to sweep across the nation, so did the means
to manufacture it. The first meth labs in California were "super labs." The
process of making meth was complicated and required a chemist.

"You hear about methamphetamine and the big super labs out in California,
and people have this image that you've got to be some high roller with
triple net flasks, heat condenser and lab equipment. That's not true
anymore," Roberts said.

The cooking process has been simplified to a recipe that can be prepared in
any kitchen. While California is known for super labs that produce pounds
of meth, Arkansas' meth problem is characterized by smaller labs that
provide just enough to use a little and sell a little. However, Roberts
warned that being a small lab did not make it less dangerous. Clandestine
labs are often more dangerous than a larger lab.

The process of making meth is done with common household items, but the
mixture of chemicals causes a dangerous environment of flammable and
poisonous gases. The primary ingredients are ephedrine and pseudoephedrine
found in cold and allergy medicines.

"The only thing in methamphetamine for production, manufacture or use that
is designed to go into the human body is the pseudoephedrine pill - cold
medicine. Everything else is not supposed to be in your body, and in and of
itself, will make you bad sick or kill you," Roberts said.

Red phosphorous, hydrogen peroxide, red devil lye, ammonia, camp fuel,
iodine, Drano, Heet and acetone are some of the chemicals that can be used
in the manufacturing process. Making meth requires extracting ephedrine
from cold medicine and combining the ephedrine with iodine crystals and red
phosphorous to create a powdery drug.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of the process is working with red
phosphorous, Roberts said. If red phosphorous is heated too long, it
becomes white phosphorous, a element which is combustible at room
temperature. White phosphorous also emits phosphine gas, which can be deadly.

"All they're doing is putting all the fumes in the house. It's all got a
flash point. If you've got a hot water heater pilot light and you forget to
blow it out before you do cook, the fumes could get to the light and you've
just flashed your house," Roberts said.

He estimated there were as many as five to six meth fires in Clark County
last year. Most fires also burned up the evidence, but at least one fire
was traced to meth. Larry Lamont Doss, 41, and Richy Doss, 41, were charged
in September with manufacturing meth after firefighters put out a house
fire at their residence.

Another part of the manufacturing process is the formation of iodine
crystals. The crystals are made by combining iodine, found in feed stores,
and hydrogen peroxide. The problem is that iodine does not wash off.

"It's kind of the mark of the beast," Morgan said. "We had these kids come
through, and they were trying to buy ephedrine. We caught them. Sure
enough, they had all the paraphernalia with them, and their hands were
stained with iodine. It's hard to tell us you were just buying ephedrine
for a cold when you've got iodine red hands."

The manufacture of meth is so toxic that it can eat away the foundation of
a house, Morgan said. Nothing grows for years in areas where the leftover
chemicals of meth are poured.

Most meth manufacturing occurs on the outskirts of a town for two reasons.
First, the process of cooking meth produces a strong odor which to many
smells like cat urine. The chemical smell is so strong that even from
outside a residence the smell can well make a person's eyes burn and water,
Roberts said.

Secondly, the use of methamphetamine gives an addict a sense of paranoia.
An addict is nervous and extremely cautious. The blinds are drawn and
nobody is allowed in. "They fear that everyone they see is out to get
them," Roberts said, so they don't want close neighbors.

"They are very paranoid and think that anybody's a policeman," Morgan said.
"Where as cocaine addicts mellow out, and they'll sell to a policeman with
a a uniform on practically because the money is what they are after. It's
harder to catch meth."

An example of paranoia is the recent drug sting in Amity, he said. More
than a year and a half of undercover work was required for those arrests.
It took an inordinate amount of time to generate the level of trust where
suspects would manufacture and deal drugs in the presence of the undercover
officer and his informant.

Roberts explained that one of the primary defenses against the manufacture
of meth is to catch the cook when he's buying the products. Because having
or selling more than 5 grams of cold medicine is illegal in Arkansas,
Roberts and Tucker both said they strive to educate store clerks to report
people who come in to buy just cold medicine.

"If a guy comes in a store and he's 35 years old and weighs 105 pounds. He
has no teeth, has sores all over his face, his eyes are twitching and he
just can't stand still. He's probably on methamphetamine," said Roberts.
"If he comes in and he buys coffee filters, a four-pack of Heet, some Red
Devil lye and the maximum amount on pseudo pills, he's not got a cold. He's
probably manufacturing meth."

Another danger in investigating meth labs is the common use of guns, said
Harris.

"Where you find meth you find weapons. That's the scary part because these
people get paranoid and nervous. When they get really wired, they can be a
handful," said Harris.

State police records from 2000 show that both men and woman use the drug,
with the highest percentage of users, 39 percent, are ages 30 to 39. In the
Amity drug bust, the oldest meth user arrested was in his 50s. The one
distinction is that meth is primarily used by whites.

In the courts, said Morgan, the drug meth is considered more serious than
marijuana and others, and the manufacture of methamphetamine is dealt with
harshly. Arkansas law requires that a person convicted of manufacturing
meth serve 70 percent of their prison time before being eligible for parole
or release. The minimum sentence on a charge of manufacturing meth is 20
years; therefore, a person convicted of the crime is guaranteed to serve 15
years before being released from prison.

"Lawmakers thought it was so serious that we needed to really address it
tough," said Morgan. "Methamphetamine and crack are more serious drugs than
marijuana because they are more addictive and cause criminal response.
Every once in a while, somebody who gets on a meth binge and has no place
to get money will get them a little mask and gun. They go into the 7-11,
and if something doesn't go right, somebody gets killed. These drugs have
caused serious trouble."

For Morgan and others in law enforcement, the best plan to deal with the
problem of meth and it manufacture is to simply enforce the law.

""The single most important thing is that we have to give a stiff sentence
to those convicted of manufacturing meth to show that we will not tolerate
this in our communities," said Tucker.