Crystal Meth Addiction Spreads
Crystal Methamphetamine spread in South Florida causes alarm
It has been called the most insidious drug of the new millennium — a substance worse than Crack cocaine.
With one hit, Methamphetamine produces a feeling of euphoria and a sense of acuity that lasts hours longer than Cocaine, making it popular among bleary-eyed truckers and overwhelmed college students. In the last decade Meth, long known as the scourge of the West Coast, has been burning a trail across the nation — so much so that California recently lost its title as the nation’s speed capital when Missouri’s fields and farmhouses became ideal sites for 2,207 labs.
As law enforcement in the South targets Meth, manufacturers dubbed “cookers” have started to spill into Florida. Here, buying meth’s over-the-counter ingredients in bulk won’t alert authorities as it would in other states that now scrutinize such purchases.
Florida state law enforcement officials first busted a Meth lab in 1997, the same year they created a task force to deal with the growing problem in Central Florida. In the last few years, Meth has begun to surface in South Florida, where at $2,000 a gram, it remains almost three times more expensive than cocaine. Not for long, warn some Miami-Dade and Broward county, Florida health experts and law enforcement officials who set up South Florida’s first Meth task force in May 2003.
Five months later, in October, authorities had their first major bust: 10 pounds of crystal Meth in Coral Gables, Florida.
“The street value was between $1 and $5 million,” Coral Gables Police Sgt. Raul Pedro said of the bust. “My understanding is that as far as they know it’s the largest single seizure of the drug in this county’s history.”
By December, Gov. Jeb Bush approved six regional response teams to Crack down on illegal labs, including one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The societal costs of the drug are high. Each pound of Meth generates 10 times its weight in toxic waste, substances U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials fear will seep into the state’s high water table. It can cost federal taxpayers up to $38,000 to clean a lab.
“And all the stuff to make it is legal,” said North Miami Beach Police Detective Mark Demarcus, who teaches officers about meth. “Once the guys down here that deal Crack find out how easy it is to make Meth, it’s probably going to blow Crack right off the streets.”
While Meth is generally made by transients who cook the drug in mobile homes, motel rooms or rented trucks in Central Florida , the drug has found a more affluent following in the southern part of the state, authorities say. Here, among the beautiful people, it’s nicknamed “Tina” by white-collar users in the gay party circuit who say it keeps their abs tight and gives them energy to dance all night and lose any inhibitions.
Studies in California show Meth users both gay and straight are likely to have more partners and riskier sex than other types of drug users. In South Florida, Meth has contributed to the recent spike in AIDS and syphilis rates, health officials say.
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