Saturday, Aug. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Methamphetamine recently bumped crack cocaine out of its No. 1 spot in the Las Vegas drug scene, providing more evidence of its rising popularity nationwide, law enforcement officials said.
Small methamphetamine labs are popping up like mushrooms throughout the Las Vegas Valley. The alluring drug -- commonly called meth, crank or speed -- propels users to the heights of ecstasy before crashing them into a violence-prone depression. Its popularity crosses economic and ethnic boundaries.
"I've found labs in gated communities and flea-bag shacks in the desert," Metro Police Detective Tom Harver said. "Mexicans are the big suppliers, but I've seen 12- and 13-year-old juvies using it and white gangs."
Cocaine -- the crack and the powder version -- has been Las Vegans' drug of choice since the 1980s, but the title passed to methamphetamine when the chemicals needed to make the drug could be purchased at any neighborhood grocery store, said Capt. Charlie Davidaitis, who oversees Metro's narcotics unit.
On the street, crack cocaine and methamphetamine sell for about $100 a gram (roughly equivalent to the amount of sweetener found in a package of Equal). But methamphetamine provides more bang for the buck -- a high lasts 12 to 14 hours compared with crack's 20-minute rush.
Metro Police estimates that almost 64 percent of its drug cases deal with speed. When law enforcement noticed the rise in meth use, officials reacted by creating the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team.
The drug-sniffing team of local cops and federal agents is dedicated to locking away methamphetamine dealers. Last year, it investigated 50 labs, and activity is up this year as the team nears the 75-lab mark. (In the first eight days of August, authorities busted six labs.)
The increased law-enforce ment effort is criticized by UNLV Criminal Justice Professor Randy Shelden, who argues that the community is wasting money by focusing on the trafficker rather than the user.
"Maybe (this effort) is kind of a smoke screen to divert us away from larger issues like why are kids using this drug to begin with? What is going on in the world around them for them to use this as an escape?" Shelden asked.
Meth labs often are discovered during routine fire calls, Harver said. The drug manufacturer requires cooking highly combustible chemicals, which can explode into a ball of flame.
Harver once responded to a trailer fire that had blistered 60 percent of the homeowner's body and had blown out the kitchen window, sending the pane flying 20 feet before it shattered to the ground.
The veteran methampheta mine investigator, who has spent years infiltrating the drug scene, was certain the homeowner had been cooking lighter fluid on the kitchen stove. But by the time police and firefighters had arrived, evidence of a drug lab had been erased.
Freaking on speed
Methamphetamine unleashes a storm of chemicals within the brain that trigger an intense euphoria unequaled by sex or food.
When a person is on crank he or she feels alive -- sensations are intensified and he is bursting with energy. But when a user "crashes," or loses his high, emotional levels plummet far below an average person's mood swings.
Each time the drug is used, the gap between the highs and lows widens until the user's emotional equilibrium is severely off balance.
Repeated use of meth appears to deplete the brain's pleasure-inducing chemical called dopamine, which may explain the apparent addictive qualities of the drug, said Dr. Stephen Kish, a University of Toronto professor.
Kish and nine other researchers are the first to study the neurochemical effects of methamphetamine on the human brain. By examining the brains of 12 meth users in Sacramento County in California, the researchers also found a possible explanation for the violent and aggressive behavior associated with speed freaks.
The research team discovered that methamphetamine suppresses the level of serotonin, the neurotransmitter chemical believed to control a person's impulsive behavior. The decreased levels of serotonin would encourage a person to act rashly and aggressively, Kish said.
When a user "over-amps" on meth, the heart beats erratically against the rib cage, forcing the user to drink alcohol or another depressant to calm his charged system, said Gerald Kniveton, director of the Nevada Treatment Center's outpatient services.
"It's very dangerous because it's like two freight trains trying to go against each other," Kniveton said.
The center is one of a number of Las Vegas drug-treatment clinics that help users break their cycle of drug abuse. Addicts learn to live with life's hardships and emotional curveballs without the use of methamphetamine.
Kniveton estimates that out of his 120 patients, 80 of them are addicted to meth. Most of the speed addicts are 20 to 35 years old, with the majority being men.
Cooking chemicals
Once controlled by outlaw motorcycle gangs, the methamphetamine trade now is dominated by Mexican organizations that have greater access to the chemicals needed to manufacture crank.
In February, U.S. authorities acknowledged that a Mexican drug cartel controlled much of the production and distribution of methamphetamine from Mexico to the United States.
The Tijuana-based Arellano cartel joined forces with the Amezcua family of Guadaljara and allegedly set up a worldwide network that shipped the chemicals needed to manufacture the drug into Mexico, authorities said. There the drug is manufactured and distributed to U.S. cities.
Though much of Las Vegas' methamphetamine is home-cooked, DEA Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Keith Baudoin said it is highly likely that some of the drug originates south of the border.
At the same time the Mexican cartels were seizing the market, manufacturing methods were changing. Larger labs went the way of the dinosaur because of laws that made it more difficult to purchase large quantities of the chemicals needed to make the drug.
Intricately constructed labs made from glassware -- often found in a lone trailer in the desert -- have been replaced for the most part with smaller operations that consist of a couple of sports bottles, cold pill medicine such as Sudafed and household chemicals like lighter fluid and Drano.
When these ingredients are mixed, the chemicals create their own heat, turning the decongestant pseudoephedrine into methamphetamine. If a manufacturer wanted to speed up the process, he or she would put the chemicals on a hot plate or stove-top.
This method, called cold-cooking, was used by a manufacturer who set up a tiny lab in a room at Arizona Charlie's hotel-casino in June. The manufacturer fell asleep, allowing the lab to burn, police said. Smoke triggered hallway fire alarms, forcing an evacuation and allowing the drug user to slip past authorities.
Many of Las Vegas' meth labs pop up in motel rooms or weekly hotels, police said. The manufacturer holes himself up in a room, refuses maid service for a week while the drug is made, then turns in his key and splits.
The only proof that he was there is a toxic soup of leftover chemicals. The sludge is tossed into a nearby Dumpster, toilet, garbage can or under the motel room bed. Not until a maid or other employee discovers the chemicals do police get tipped off, and by then the criminal's trail is cold.
Mopping up
The Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team is reactionary, largely responding to fire scenes or sludge discoveries. The reason: Police say the labs are so numerous and portable that they are difficult to uncover through surveillance, especially when police manpower is in short supply.
When police arrive at a recently vacated motel room, they sift through garbage and scan the room for clues that will lead them to the meth manufacturer. A receipt from a grocery list may help detectives locate the drug dealer's permanent home.
Investigating a meth lab is expensive and time-consuming. Because the the federal government has designated the chemicals as hazardous material, protocol must be followed.
To handle the material, police must wear white chemical suits and masks that will protect their skin and lungs.
Cleaning up a crime scene takes from five hours to three days and thousands of tax dollars. The cleanup of a lab discovered at Las Vegas Scientific & Chemical Supply on Polaris Avenue last fall cost $74,000, said DEA's Baudoin.
Since January, cleanup efforts have cost local and federal authorities a total of $120,000.
Authorities said Las Vegas Scientific & Chemical Supply was manufacturing large quantities of crank after they said they discovered a roomful of powder and liquid acids, corrosives, toxic chemicals and flammable liquids.
New federal regulations could punish businesses like this one if they sell large amounts of chemicals such as pseudoephedrine, an over-the-counter cold medicine that converts easily to methamphetamine.
The Drug Enforcement Administration rules, which will become effective Oct. 7, would:
* Limit retail purchases to 488 tablets and require wholesalers that sell more than that amount to register with the DEA and keep detailed records.
* Restrict small mail-order companies from shipping pseudoephedrine in some cases and require detailed record keeping in others.
Federal authorities hope to close a loophole that is being exploited by methamphetamine manufacturers.
In 1988, federal law restricted the sale of a drug, once used to manufacture methamphetamine. So gangs turned to ephedrine, used legally to control asthma. But in 1993 Congress imposed more regulations on ephedrine, so dealers turned to pseudoephedrine tablets such as Sudafed.
The regulations are opposed by the Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association, which worries about increased costs associated with the paperwork.
Similar, yet less restrictive legislation, was proposed two weeks ago by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also has introduced legislation to address the problem.
"Federal officials have told me they do not have the tools to stop this drug epidemic," Reid said. "Under the bill ... they will.
"In the past five years, the federal government has focused much attention on crack cocaine, but methamphetamine is a powerful drug that is cheaper and growing in popularity."
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