STATE'S DRUG WAR CHANGING

Crack, Marijuana And "Crystal Meth" Now The Drugs Most In Demand

Some things never change in Mississippi: The bad guys are still "cooking," but
the recipe has changed.

Corn mash is out. Ammonia and pseudoephedrine are in.

In 2003, there were 443 manufacturing operations working across Mississippi
that weren't listed in the Mississippi Development Authority's files - all
illegal drug laboratories and most manufacturing illegal "crystal"
methamphetamine or "crack" cocaine.

There are more such laboratories operating across the state as you read this
sentence. The 443 cited are simply the ones discovered and destroyed in the
state in 2003 by federal, state and local law enforcement agents.

What's the state of the war on drugs in Mississippi? Federal, state and local
drug enforcement took almost 15,800 lbs of cocaine, 35 lbs. of crystal
methamphetamine, almost 3,700 lbs of processed marijuana and another 5,210
marijuana plants, and a collection of narcotics off the street in some 2,244
drug arrests.

State Bureau of Narcotics Director Frank Melton said the agency's evidence room
vault currently holds $1.6 billion in confiscated drugs - even after destroying
$10 million to $15 million in processed drug evidence since he took command of
the agency in 2002.

"The numbers don't mean a thing," said Melton. "No matter how many drug dealers
are arrested or how much drugs we take off the street, real progress lies in
education and prevention in schools and neighborhoods and in concentrating less
on arresting a lot of street dealers and more on arresting drug suppliers."

Mississippi taxpayers dedicated money to the problem - some $12.2 million in
state Bureau of Narcotics funding alone last year. That doesn't count a
Mississippi taxpayer's share of general federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies that routinely deal with drug cases. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency has a $1.9 billion budget.

Fifty years ago, rural Mississippi communities were often havens to illegal
clandestine liquor manufacturing operations. The "moonshine stills"
circumvented the state's legal prohibition of booze and provided income for
those who could make more money "running 'shine" than by more honest pursuits.

Moonshine whiskey produced in the state ran the gamut from the finest sipping
whiskey to rotgut brews that left customers sick or dead from lead poisoning.
The advent of legal liquor and beer in the state proved the death knell of the
vast majority of illegal stills in the state beginning in the early 1970s.

But both state and federal agencies charged with drug enforcement in
Mississippi say that the manufacture of "crystal" methamphetamine - and to a
somewhat lesser degree "crack" cocaine - has become the moonshining operations
of the 21st century. Modern drug dealers manufacture their products in homes,
in rural outbuildings and in other locations.

Two Mississippi sheriffs bolster state and federal concerns about
methamphetamine manufacture.

"It's quick to make, relatively easy to make and we see more methamphetamine on
the street than all the other drugs combined," said Neshoba County Sheriff Glen
Waddell of Philadelphia. "Mostly we see small manufacturing for use, but there
have been big labs found here making it to sell. It's been a serious problem
here."

Calhoun County Sheriff Billy Mac Gore of Vardaman said local manufacture of
methamphetamine was among "the most serious problems" in his county.

"We see the problem most in the white community than the black community and we
see teenagers being used by adults to buy the materials to make the stuff in
local stores," Gore said. "This(methamphetamine manufacture) is far more
widespread than moonshining ever was."

Melton said that because of the danger of fire and explosion from the meth labs
and the popularity of the drug, methamphetamine "is the biggest, most dangerous
drug problem confronting Mississippi today."

He said methamphetamine abuse produces many of the same physical dangers as
ingestion of rotgut whiskey did a half-century ago in the state.

U.S. DEA officials agree. In the 2002 DEA report on the drug situation in
Mississippi, the agency reported: "While cocaine, particularly 'crack' cocaine,
is still considered to be the biggest drug threat facing the state of
Mississippi, the increase in methamphetamine abuse and manufacturing follows
closely behind . . . methamphetamine use in Mississippi is rampant."

Melton said that MBN has several critical needs if the agency is to be more
successful in fighting drugs in Mississippi - increased agency funding from
$12.2 million to $17.5 million, salary increases and a better retirement plan
for MBN agents and a change in the current state drug forfeiture formula.

Currently, if MBN works a case in a local jurisdiction with the assistance of a
local law enforcement agency, MBN receives only 20 percent of drug assets
forfeited by seizure while the locals get 80 percent. Melton wants that changed
to 50 percent for MBN.

"It would help morale and help offset budget concerns and it's simply the fair
way to do things," he said.

But Melton said that none of those initiatives will help further the cause of
combatting drugs in Mississippi unless his "safe schools and safe
neighborhoods" programs are successful.

Melton said MBN officials have interacted with 10,600 students in 26
Mississippi schools and that the safe neighborhoods program is active in "two
or three communities across the state" each week.

"Education and prevention is only one side of it," said Ole Miss professor
emeritus of history Dr. David Sansing. "Our drug laws are inconsistently
enforced. We're not rehabilitating anybody, not dealing with addiction. That's
still the missing piece of the puzzle."

Melton's MBN annual report lists a gram of methamphetamine at a street value of
$100, a rock of crack cocaine at $20.

"Bottom line, it's about the money," Melton said. "That's what we're battling."

"The only moonshining we see up here anymore is an occasional person making a
small amount of "home brew," said Gore. "But these meth labs have spread all
over northeast Mississippi and the problem is growing, not getting smaller."