METH COOK SPEAKS OUT

[Cure20]

Editor's Note -- Daily Courier staff writer Josh Humphries recently had an opportunity to interview a suspect who had been arrested in a methamphetamine lab raid and was charged with manufacturing the dangerous drug. Following is the story that resulted from that interview.

RUTHERFORDTON -- A methamphetamine cook in custody at the Rutherford County Detention Facility wants to warn those who are thinking of trying meth.

The inmate, whose name was withheld at the request of law enforcement officials, said that trying meth for the first time often happens when friends get together.

"A bunch of friends got together and someone had some," said the inmate of their first meth experience. "It was just like passing a blunt ( a marijuana-laced cigar ) -- not that big of a deal at first."

The inmate said that people who have never used meth should never try it.

"It is no good," said the inmate. "If you do it, you will end up in jail, or dead, and lose everything you have. I've known people on crack who were not as bad as people on meth."

The inmate made meth once a week in the beginning and as time went on, the cook made it more than once a week.

"People would bring me the stuff to make it," said the cook. "The faster they got it there, the faster you made it and more you did."

The cook made about 20 to 30 grams of meth at a time to pay the bills and to have the drug to smoke.

"I didn't make a bunch of money, but I made some," said the cook. "If you sell to somebody, you smoke with them."

A drug officer said that most meth addicts do not really have anything of value and are often homeless and live day to day wherever they can.

The cook wants to stay off of meth and spend more time with family.

"My kids were missing out," said the cook. "It took at lot from me -- time I could have spent with them -- you don't care about anything when you are on it."

Getting along with other users was easy, at least until the meth ran out, said the cook.

"You get so used to being on it that everything is different when you are not," said the cook. "People's reactions were different to not being on it, it just depended on who they were."

The cook urges people who had never done the drug to stay away from it.

"I never gave it to anybody for their first time," the cook said. "I would say 'put it down' to someone who just picked it up."

One of the Sheriff's drug officers said that meth cooks often become addicted to the act of making meth, that cooking is an addiction in itself.

"They get addicted to making it," said the officer. "I guess they just like to see if they can do it."

Making meth is a process that requires a minimal amount of chemistry skills. Meth cooks use common household items like cold medication that contains pseudoephedrine, hydrogen peroxide, acetone, lye, matches and rubbing alcohol.

The meth cook at the jail said that addicts look through the sales papers to find items that are on sale at different stores to obtain the products used to make the drug.

The drug officer said that meth abuse is not decreasing in the area as far as officials can tell. He said that stronger penalties on manufacturing may help reduce the number of labs, but meth addicts are still using in high numbers in the county.

The SBI has estimated that only six people out 100 who are addicted to meth will be able to get off it.

Methamphetamine is a central nervous stimulate that is made from ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. It is stronger and lasts longer than cocaine or crack, according to the SBI.

The drug is highly addictive and can be very cheap because a lot of people make it for themselves.

Meth is made in secret, usually makeshift laboratories that may be found in ordinary kitchens, bathrooms, basements or sheds. The process for making meth is not difficult to learn, so uneducated drug dealers can make the drug without any scientific training.