Thread: METH MAKERS ONE STEP AHEAD OF LAW MAKERS

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Meth Makers One Step Ahead of Law Makers
by B. Jay Johnson

There is a new warning from law enforcement officials about methamphetamine.

Drug agents say manufacturers of crystal meth have found a new way to process the drug.

They are now using the gel form of pseudoephedrine. Pseudoephedrine in the gel form can still be purchased over the counter.



Mike Hall, the Director of the 10th Judicial Drug Task Force, says drug makers use red devil lye and Coleman fuel to extract the pseudo from the gel capsules. That leaves them with the prime ingredient for crystal meth - ephedrine.

Hall says drug enforcement officials are concerned about this new trend in meth making. He says cases have already been reported in Hamilton, McMinn and Monroe Counties, but so far not in Bradley County.

News of this comes at a time when authorities in Texas are sounding the alarm about another dangerous drug trend.

Some stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have started selling Tylenol P.M. behind the counter. That's because people are mixing the popular pain medicine with black tar to concoct a drug referred to on the street as "cheese." In essence, it is a cheaper form of heroin. Over the past two years, approximately two dozen young people in the North Texas region have died from an overdose of "cheese."

Drug Agent Hall says so far his agents haven't run across this form of heroin. In fact, he says heroin is not a drug that is easily found here in southeast Tennessee.

Hall was the featured speaker at the July meeting of the GRAAB Coalition. GRAAB stands for Going Respectfully Against Addictive Behavior. The coalition held its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 19 at the YMCA.

The YMCA is just one of more than a dozen agencies in Bradley County involved in the GRAAB partnership.

Agent Hall is certainly one of the most knowledgeable and outspoken people about drug addiction in southeast Tennessee. He is also one of the generals waging war against drugs in the area.

Hall says 85 percent of violent crime is drug-related. He says drugs are at the root of the majority of crimes that are committed. He told those who attended the coalition meeting that robberies in Bradley County are almost always connected to drugs.

"If someone breaks into your home and steals your TV, jewelry or other valuables, chances are they are doing it to buy drugs," says Hall.

Despite the emergence of new ways of manufacturing crystal meth, Hall says that drug agents are still currently winning the war against meth labs.

"We used to shut down 120 meth labs a year," says Hall. "Now that is down to about five or six meth labs a year."

Hall explained the damaging effects of using crystal meth. He referred to a study in which a 19-year old girl had used meth approximately 40 times. He said the girl already showed signs of Parkinson's Disease.

Agent Hall told the coalition members that Atlanta has become the hub for drug trafficking in the southeast United States. He says it used to be Miami.

Hall says beause of its close proximity to Atlanta, Bradley County is a hotbed for drug trafficking. He says dealers use two main arteries of transportation to move their drugs - Interstate 75 and Dalton Pike. He says both highways provide the dealers with a straight shot into Bradley County.

Hall says that most of the drug traffickers who are bringing methamphetamine into southeast Tennessee are Hispanic. He says Dalton, Georgia is becoming a major distribution center. Dalton is an hour north of Atlanta and about 45 minutes south of Cleveland.

"We are so close to the heartbeat of the drug problem," says Hall. "We have a real fight on our hands."

Hall says that despite the severity of the meth problem in Bradley County, it takes back seat to another source of drug addiction - painkillers.

"It happens to some of the best people in the community," says Hall, "including nurses, corporate executives and even ministers in the church community."

Hall wears a badge and carries a gun, but underneath that badge is a big heart.

"We're not just here to put people in jail," says Hall. "I want to help them stop using drugs."

Hall says that oxycontin remains one of the most highly addictive and severely abused drugs in the region.

"We're talking about a drug that costs a dollar a milligram," he says. That means an 80 milligram tablet of oxycontin rakes in 80 dollars for the dealer.

Hall, who also happens to be a Youth Minister with Mount Olive Ministries, says one of the contributing factors to the problem with oxycontin is the willingness of patients to sell their medication.

He says he recently arrested an elderly man who had $80,000 stashed in a shoe box. The man had made the money by selling his pain medication.

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http://www.bradleyweekly.com/news.cfm?id=5349&issue=296

Psalm 91

They have known this for a long time. 5 years ago the cash register machines at the grocery stores in Salt Lake would not let you ring up these things at one time. It was a clue there were making meth.