S.C.  PREPARES FOR WAR AGAINST METH

But State Isn't Ready Yet to Handle Drug's Spread, Attorney General Says

COLUMBIA - South Carolina's attorney general says his state is largely unprepared to control the spread of methamphetamine, which rapidly gained a foothold in the mountains of the Upstate.

Attorney General Henry McMaster met Monday for the first time with law enforcement, health, social services and retail officials to talk about how to fight the growing meth problem.

McMaster hasn't yet developed specific proposals -- those will come after several more meetings.  And he doesn't plan to ask for money for programs to fight meth because of the state's budget crunch.

But he wants the affected agencies to come up with a plan to help curb the drug's spread.

Many of the approximately 150 people who attended Monday's summit said the state needs to get a grip on the problem before it takes over.

"It's the kudzu of the drug world," McMaster said.  "It's everywhere."

That's because it's highly addictive, easy to make and profitable to sell.

The Drug Enforcement Agency reported fewer than 10 S.C.  meth labs in 2001, a number that grew to about 130 in 2003.  Already this year, about 100 meth labs have been found.

The numbers in North Carolina are similar, with the number of labs busted growing from fewer than 10 four years ago to 177 last year.  The State Bureau of Investigation expects the number to top 300 this year.

The SBI investigates meth labs in North Carolina, but several agencies including the DEA and the S.C.  State Law Enforcement Division investigate meth manufacturing in South Carolina.

In both states, most of the labs have been found in the mountains.  Police officers and drug agents are finding them in campgrounds, motels, cars and mobile homes, and say the problem is spreading to the cities.

The lab operations often explode, making it dangerous for public safety workers.  And the toxic brew of chemicals used to make the drug can damage the lungs and irritate the skin of people around it, including children.

The drug gives users enough energy to stay awake for days or weeks at a time but also can make them violent and paranoid.

"Methamphetamine rules you," said Brian Holland, who used the drug as a member of the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang and later as a truck driver.  "It comes in very quietly and you enjoy it.  But once it has you, you can't get away from it.  Once it has you, you're toast."

Holland, 45, who spoke to authorities Monday, is now clean and teaches youth Sunday school classes.  He said the public and health and treatment officials need to become familiar with the drug and its effects to help others like him.

McMaster, the attorney general, said South Carolina can model its meth-fighting programs on those in Kansas and California, as well as one being developed in North Carolina.

N.C.  Attorney General Roy Cooper this spring will take a $14 million meth-fighting plan to state legislators.  His proposal would train law enforcement officers, launch a public awareness campaign and lengthen prison sentences for people who possess chemicals used to make meth.

McMaster's proposal likely will support programs for retailers to voluntarily limit the sale of products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, the key ingredients in meth.

An S.C.  Senate committee already is drafting a bill that would penalize those who possess large quantities of ingredients for the drug.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officers at Monday's summit said the state needs to develop a protocol for how to handle children that are taken into custody from meth homes.  It now varies county to county.

Others at the summit said emergency room physicians need a checklist of symptoms of meth exposure to use during examinations.  But they're not the only doctors who need to know what to look for, said Dr.  Stephen Merlin, director of chemical dependency treatment at Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia.

"There's an awful lot of work to be done in the medical community, which doesn't see it as a problem because they ( users ) are not coming into our offices," Merlin said.  "We're ill-prepared to handle this."