Valley hotbed of meth activity, officials say

MAT-SU -- Drug enforcement officials say there's an alarming increase in methamphetamine production in the Valley, but a little help from the public could see the problem stamped out.

Palmer's District Attorney office received 54 new meth lab cases to prosecute this quarter, compared to Anchorage's 57 new cases for the same period, said Jack Smith, assistant district attorney.

"What we are seeing here is potentially an epidemic like in the Lower 48," said Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Unit Supervisor Patrick Davis. "Yet Alaska has the opportunity to take a pro-active approach and curb this by hitting it en masse."

The good news is that the epidemic has a cure -- if enough people are educated about meth production. It's not like the fad drugs that are brought into the state, such as cocaine and ecstasy, Davis said. Making meth is dangerous.

Meth production creates toxic vapors and wastes that are so hazardous suspects are made to remove their clothing and don chemical suits for the ride to jail.

Drug unit officers undergo special training to make them aware of the 30,000 possible chemicals in the processes used to make meth. Davis is an Alaska State Trooper, yet he had to learn enough about molecules and the incompatibility of chemicals to make him a chemist.

The Alaska Legislature passed a law last year making meth production a class A felony offense, recognizing it as a worse crime, in fact, than using the drug. Possession or using meth is a class C felony crime. This gives judges the ability to sentence meth "cooks" to five-year presumptive terms, Smith said.

Methamphetamine was devised by the Nazis in Germany during World War II.

"It was given to soldiers to amp them up for battle," Davis said.

In the '60s, Davis said, meth began cropping up as "biker's dope" in California, among such groups as the Hell's Angels.

The drug can be ingested as a powder, by shooting up or smoking and gives an eight to 12-hour high that begins with a 30-40 minute rush. If more meth is taken, the person can stay awake for three days. But after 72 hours the body starts shutting down, wanting to sleep. The ensuing deep sleep is like the person was knocked out by anesthesia. "You can't wake them up," Davis said.

"When the person wakes and craves more, the process starts again but he will reach a tweaking stage considered dangerous, when the body tries to shut down and the drug won't let it," Davis said.

A superhuman feeling similar to that given by LSD can result. Also, paranoia and other behavior makes the user dangerous to those around him and to officers trying to make a traffic stop or arrest.

Entering a place where meth is made involves an array of hazards. Drug officers involved with collecting evidence from meth labs in the previous decade suffered kidney and liver failure and damage to their lungs. Some died in explosions from entering rooms so charged with vapors that an electrical carpet-spark ignited fire.

The drug enforcement agency stepped in about 10 years ago, after Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) decided the only officers who should be handling the stuff used to make meth ought to be highly trained.

After a 1999 bust in Valdez, Davis said, the drug team had to wait a day and half for a vapor cloud to clear out before they could enter the home to clean up the hazardous chemicals.

Landlords who unknowingly rent to methamphetamine "cooks" find their property uninhabitable after the renter moves on, Smith said.

"The house becomes an environmental hazard," he explained.

The Valley has proven an attractive place to set up "Beavis and Butthead" meth operations -- small-time efforts for personal use and for sale to a few people. The wide open spaces between neighbors in the Valley grant more privacy, Smith and Davis said. The drug unit has busted larger meth operations, professionals who moved here from Fairbanks where they had previous meth convictions, and former pot growers who decided it's more lucrative to make meth than to wait 90 days for a marijuana crop.

Officers found two meth operations in vans being driving around town. "They were cooking it on a stove or hot plate in the van, probably to avoid being detected by neighbors," Smith said.

To catch meth lab operators, drug enforcement officers depend on tips from the public. Neighbors might not realize the drug is being manufactured next door, but they notice the smell of bleach or starter fluid -- strong odors they may not identify.

"They might see weird activity, such as a lot of people going in and out of a house in a short amount of time, indicating the cook has made a batch and now it's ready to sell," Davis said.

Store clerks should be suspicious if they see someone purchasing large quantities of coffee filters, matches, pseudoephedrine and bleach, according to information that has been provided to store owners by the drug unit.

The process for making meth takes cold medication, such as pseudoephedrine, and chemically alters it so that it produces a high, Davis said.

"The ephedrine molecule in the chemical process that is used basically removes an oxygen atom and turns it into methamphetamine," he explained.

All labs share common hazards such as flammability, combustibility and heat stress, as well as the inherent hazards of the original products being used, like Heet, fuel and acids. There are also unique hazards to each lab in that the gases generated by combinations of phosphorous and hydriotic acid, are chemical compounds that can be pyroforic, meaning they react with air to spontaneously ignite, or aquaforic, meaning that they can explode with contact to water.

What's especially troubling is when a whole family lives in the environment in which meth is produced. One Wasilla drug arrest and conviction stemmed from a 13-year-old boy who reportedly told his school counselor that his dad made him help make meth. The boy's job, the child said, was to tear up matchbooks used to obtain red phosphorous.

In that same home, drug enforcement officers reported they found the boy's father sitting with a baby on his lap and a loaded syringe next to him. On the stove top, a batch of meth reportedly sat drying in a pan. Three other children and his wife all lived in the same apartment, which was in a Wasilla apartment complex.

The 13-year-old has since been taken from the home and reportedly lives with relatives in the Lower 48. His father is now serving time for a drug conviction on that case, Smith said.

Davis said about 90 percent of their cases come from tips given by the public. The Mat-Su Drug Team encourages anyone with information concerning potential meth lab activity to contact them at 373-0705.