When it comes to meth, we're all natives.

Top of the morning gents,

As parents, we're such dorks. We thought we were so
cool to sneak out to the goats' barn, rabbit hutch, or
the tackle shop to spark up a doobie or choke down a
fatty. Fuck, I wish our rural drug problems were as
simple and relatively non-addictive as smoking a joint
with the Big Lebowsky, or Willie Nelson.

My old boss Trooper Tyler used to laugh and only wish
he could return to the days of chasing stoned hippies
across wheat fields. "Arresting spics, niggers, and
chiefs on speed is just too dangerous." "All them
fuckers are carrying."

Bowman once scolded me to ignore my neighborhood
grow-ops and "focus on the powders." He once lectured
Bleicher and I that if Mat-Su Narcotics wanted bud,
"we can grow our own!"

"I want to see some warrants for cocaine and crystal
meth sales god dammit!"

This scared me, cuz it meant I had to hang out and
party with filthy bikers like the Carlsons, Jim Bob,
Raw (Johnny) Hyde, and the Dinardo turds. These sick
fucks lived on crystal meth, cocaine, nicotine and
alcohol, just 250 yards up from the Chief's moonshine
hideout. Nice neighborhood, lots of GSW's and knife
wounds.

Weed was smoked around the clock like cigarettes, but
my bosses wanted 'hard drug busts.' Besides, pot is so
weak.

Looking back at our last 20 years of narc work
together, I see my supervisors' logic. Booze is the
big time Indun killer and associated with every
goddamn service request you ever responded to, but
Meth simply kills EVERYBODY.

Quit now while yer ahead. You coppers don't have a
clue what's rumbling beyond the horizon. If you think
bootleggers and 6-pack bud dealers gave you grief,
you're in for a heartbreak.

I ain't denying that our best fucking drug customers
are Natives slinging welfare dineros, Regional Corpse
checks, and Alaska PFD drunk checks, but this meth
epidemic is killing good honest white folks just as
effectively.

Since nobody cares about drunken ice niggers, I didn't
either. But now we have children of all colors
destroying themselves and I find this upsetting.

Instead bitching, I did what I do best: I write about
it.

Here's another Meth submittal, scary shit hombres.

Karl.

---

Briefing on the explosion of Methamphetamine use in
the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Meth abuse has been nearly a century in the making.


No one can pinpoint the exact day methamphetamine, one
of the most potent and destructive drugs known, first
crossed Alaska's borders.

But it has been lurking here for decades.

Most likely, illegal speed (crystal, crank, zip,
go-fast, trailer park dust) first came to Alaska on
the roaring wheels of biker gangs in the 1960s or
'70s, Anchorage and Fairbanks police say. It stayed in
and around the biker community, which had a stronghold
on the trade.

It wasn't until the '80s that meth — now in a more
potent form and more easily made —began to gain real
popularity.

Narcotics detectives around the state were busy
battling cocaine, the scourge of the '80s, when users
started turning to meth as a lower-priced alternative.
Meth was soon dubbed the "poor man's cocaine."

"The trouble is, there were labs done quite some time
ago, but they were not recognized as labs," said Tim
Bleicher, now an investigator with the Alaska’s
Statewide Drug Enforcement who was a narcotics
detective with the Mat-Su Drug Taskforce at the time
meth emerged as a drug problem in the mid-1980s.

In those days, narcotics detectives would ask their
informants and field agents about the trade of the
drugs they were all familiar with — cocaine, crack,
heroin, but not meth.

"If you don't look for it, you just don't find it,"
Bleicher said. "No one ever thought to ask about speed
or crank."

In 1987, a 47-year-old man associated with the Hells
Angels was arrested while making meth in Lynnwood,
Washington. In his rental home was the country's first
recorded home based meth lab in the Northwest.

Amphetamine was first synthesized in Germany, in 1887.
Methamphetamine, a purer form, has been around since
it was discovered by a Japanese scientist in 1919.

Meth — legally made as Desoxyn — is part of the larger
family of drugs that includes amphetamine (Benzedrine)
and dextroamphetamine (Dexadrine).

Amphetamine came into common usage after Los Angeles
research chemist Gordon Alles discovered in 1927 that
it could be used to treat dementia, siezures, and
respiratory illnesses as a replacement for other drugs
then in short supply.

That discovery would later be described in a 1971
report to the U.S. House of Representatives as "a
Frankensteinian-type monster over which we seemingly
have no control."

In 1965, possession of nonprescription amphetamines
became illegal and the number of clandestine labs
began to grow.

But meth stayed mainly around the biker gangs and
their associates until 1980, when the federal
government regulated a key ingredient known as
phenyl-2-propane.

With amphetamines growing more scarce cocaine use
started to rise again.

Meth cooks soon found different recipes, using
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as key ingredients. The
new recipes also proved to be easier and made a more
potent form of meth known as Hitler Speed, NAZI Crank
and D-meth.

By 1989, it was the third most popular drug in the
county behind marijuana and cocaine.

Today, its use has exploded in the Northwest Arctic
and North Slope Boroughs and around the country,
sucking thousands of users into a black hole of
addiction, poverty and despair.

Meth is different from other street drugs in its
toxicity and its relatively low cost.

· The materials used to make the drug are toxic and
flammable.
· The drug itself is so toxic that it cannot be
processed by the kidneys and eventually will try to
work itself out of the body through the skin, creating
sores, in popular street parlance: speed bugs, crank
blisters, and meth zits.

The addiction rate for meth is staggering.

· It is estimated that 40 to 45 percent of first-time
users become addicted to the drug.
· For those not addicted the first time, 80 to 85
percent of those trying the drug a second time become
addicted.

Meth treatment is difficult and success rates are low,
estimated between six and ten percent. Because the
effects of the drug are so long lasting, it can take
over four weeks (the standard time for in-patient drug
treatment) just to get the drugs out of the body.
Treatment efforts can only really begin after this
period of time.

There is no pharmacological treatment for meth
addiction. Treatment centers simply try to keep the
recovering addict safe and protected. Then they begin
a long-term rehabilitation program to develop healthy
coping mechanisms for lethargy and anxiety.

“Withdrawal symptoms can last up to 18 months,” said
counselor Grahek, who added that due to the intensive
care and treatment necessary with Meth addiction,
Lakeside Recovery of North Seattle, Washington only
has the capacity to work with up to 20 recovering Meth
addicts at a time, and currently has a waiting list
for their program. Alaska’s leading recovery center,
Charter North located in Anchorage, Alaska, doesn’t
offer recovery and treatment programs designated
specifically to treat such an insidious disorder as
Meth addiction.


Many states Attorney Generals feel that Meth is one of
the worse threats facing their communities. In short,
they are alarmed; they feel this may be one of the
biggest threats and challenges they face.

Meth, because it is so highly addictive, is a very
real, imminent threat to those who try it. Because of
its super addictive nature, many who try it just once
become hooked. Some experts believe that just one use
can change how the brain operates -- can change the
chemicals the brain produces. Meth literally destroys
those who use it.

Countless street crimes are caused by addicts seeking
to make a quick score. America needs a more
comprehensive and aggressive approach to address this
growing threat.

Those who are hooked on the drug are a threat. They
are a threat to their next victims and they are a
threat to officers on the street (many of those
involved in officer attacks/assaults are on drugs when
they fight).

Meth labs are a threat to those in and around the
production of the drug in clandestine labs scattered
through communities across America (increasingly
including children, neighbors and first responders).

The criminal drug trade in general -- and
Methamphetamine in particular -- are a very profitable
criminal activity and it is attracting the interest,
backing and active support of organized crime and
international drug cartels.

“There is no doubt that control of precursors will
lead to new or old variant syntheses,” says City
University of New York pharmacologist John P. Morgan.
“If the curtailment of [pseudoephedrine] works, such
success will be temporary. Another method of
manufacture or other supply will be found.”

“According to the Drug Enforcement Administration,
some 80 percent of illicit meth comes from large-scale
Mexican traffickers, who tend to buy pseudoephedrine
in bulk rather than a few packs at a time in
pharmacies and grocery stores.”

“Recent reporting indicates that Canadian companies
are a major source of supply for pseudoephedrine
destined for U.S. laboratories because of minimal
chemical controls in Canada. On March 7, 2002, search
warrants were served on two residences, one in Everett
and the other in Lynnwood, Washington. Four hundred
containers of 25,000 count pseudoephedrine jars, or
"pickle jars," (approximately 10,000,000 tablets) and
$1,502,000 USC were seized. The pseudoephedrine is
believed to have originated in Canada.”


From the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy.

“Methamphetamine trafficking and abuse have changed in
the United States during the past 10 years. Mexican
drug trafficking organizations have become the
dominant manufacturing and distribution group in
cities in the Midwest and the West. Methamphetamine
production and abuse were previously controlled by
independent laboratory operators, such as outlaw
motorcycle gangs, which continue to operate but to a
smaller extent. The Mexican criminal organizations are
able to manufacture in excess of 10 pounds of
methamphetamine in a 24-hour period, producing
high-purity, low-cost methamphetamine.”

In closing, I found a quote from right out of our own
back yard:

*As reported on Anchorage’s KTUU Channel 2 News,
“Grade school kids can now find meth more easily than
cigarettes.”