Watauga Democrat
By Jerry Sena

LENOIR – New laws and smarter law enforcement have for the first time in five years slowed the proliferation of “mom and pop” methamphetamine labs statewide, but the chairman of a House subcommittee acknowledged it’s caused an increased demand for a much more potent strain of Mexican meth to replace it.

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee of Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, made the statement during a field hearing on the impact of methamphetamine addiction in northwestern North Carolina.

“As expected, as these ‘mom and pop’  or  ‘Nazi’ labs are shut down, the demand is being met by the crystal meth brought in mostly by Mexican gangs,” Souder told the gathering of about 100 Caldwell County officials, citizens, and media from as far away as Charlotte and Winston-Salem.

The subcommittee is responsible for authorizing legislation for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and its programs along with oversight of U.S. government drug control efforts.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., joined Souder and Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., in Lenoir Tuesday. McHenry’s 10th district  includes Caldwell, Burke and Rutherford counties.

Caldwell, Burke and Rutherford sent their sheriffs to testify, along with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation.

John J. Emmerson, the DEA’s Charlotte assistant agent in charge, told the subcommittee the state had seen a “leveling off” last year in the number of meth-lab discoveries.

“We’d anticipated 600 or more labs in 2005,” Emmerson said, his estimate supported by SBI figures, which showed meth lab seizures roughly doubling with each succeeding year since 2002 .

With 2004’s number set at 243, 600 labs would have fallen well within expectations for 2005.

Instead, the number plateaued at 322. And if 2006 continues as it began – law enforcement reports a 30 percent reduction compared to the first three months of 2005 – it could see an even sharper decline in the spread of so-called “mom and pop” labs.

Watauga County, which only two years ago led the state in such labs at 46, had uncovered only one through March 31, according to the SBI.

Home-cooked meth, however, had never accounted for more than a small portion of the meth consumed overall. Estimates range from 10 to 20 percent, with the vast majority coming from super labs in California and Mexico, so-called because of their capacity to produce at least 10 pounds of a highly pure drug in a day’s time.

Small-time kitchen cooks produce a less potent form of the drug, often no better than 45 to 50 percent pure.
 
The “ice” or “crystal meth” produced in super labs more often ranges in purity from 80 to over 90 percent, making it, according to Emmerson, a much more addictive drug.

“The methamphetamine – or ice – that comes from Mexican super labs is very potent and leads our users to a new level of addiction,” Rutherford County Sheriff C. Philip Byers told the subcommittee Tuesday.

Controlled by Mexican gangs whose supply lines and distribution networks have been established through their decades-long control of the marijuana and cocaine trades, crystal meth makes its way to North Carolina through major hubs, such as Atlanta,  before filtering through Charlotte to the largely rural areas where most of its users reside.

Souder pointed to independent truckers as another source of the drug’s transport from the West Coast and Mexico.

Anti-meth provisions in the recently passed Patriot Act will impose restrictions nationwide on accessibility of cold and allergy remedies whose active ingredient – ephedrine and pseudoephedrine – is a vital ingredient in the recipes of small-time meth cooks.

The new restrictions close holes in the enforcement network which allowed meth cooks in southern counties, such as Rutherford, Burke and Buncombe, to obtain the chemicals for home-cooked meth in South Carolina, whose lawmakers have yet to enact the same restrictions as North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

“Our addicts are just driving 15 minutes and getting the products they need,” Rutherford’s Sheriff Byers told the subcommittee.

“Until South Carolina steps forward, or until the national law takes effect, our folks will just go there to get what they need.”

PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (seated far right) joined other government personnel at a briefing on methamphetamine production Tuesday in Lenoir. Photo by Jerry Sena

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