Vol. 36, Number 7—July 2004

Methamphetamine Hits The Heartland

Methamphetamine, or meth as it is known on the street, is easily manufactured. The necessary ingredients are readily available and inexpensive. It also has become the drug of choice in certain parts of the country, and the federal courts are feeling the impact.

In a 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 1.5 million people reported using methamphetamine during the previous year, and 597,000 used methamphetamine during the previous 30 days.

"In this period of bleak fiscal prospects, community safety and services to the court will be adversely impacted while methamphetamine abuse continues to rise," said Chief Judge Mark Bennett (N.D. Iowa). "And that," he added, "is the grandmother of understatements."

Bennett speaks from experience. In the Northern District of Iowa, 23 new federal law enforcement personnel have been added since 1997, to investigate and prosecute drug crimes. As a result, criminal felony case filings per judge in the district went from 53 to 215 during roughly the same time period.      

In courts throughout the country, meth has replaced cocaine and marijuana as a drug caseload leader, taxing judges, courtroom staff, and probation and pretrial services officers.

Last month in the District of Nebraska, a federal judge sentenced an offender to life in prison for plotting to kill a police officer who had investigated the defendant's distribution of more than 500 grams of meth. On the day of the sentencing, a local newspaper reported that a young woman had been charged in the death of her  22-month-old son. The woman told police she'd left the infant alone for two days while she smoked meth with friends.

"Methamphetamine is wide-spread, cheap, and easy to manufacture," said Nebraska Chief Judge Richard Kopf. "Most of the cases we see are meth conspiracy [to distribute] cases. And our U.S. Attorney tells us it's only going to increase." 

In 1995, methamphetamine cases constituted 22.7 percent of all Nebraska drug sentences. By 2002 that figure had jumped to 66.3 percent. In the same time, thefts of anhydrous ammonia, raw material for methamphetamine production, are reported to have increased 500 percent.

"Federal courts in Nebraska have become big city criminal courts," said Kopf.

Nebraska isn't alone. There's a methamphetamine epidemic in America's heartland, caused by a drug cooked up in residential bathtubs and small mobile labs in rural areas or imported through a thriving distribution network originating in Mexico. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that approximately 8,561 clandestine laboratories were seized in the U.S. in 2003, each capable of producing up to 8 ounces of methamphetamine in a 24-hour cycle.

In fiscal year 1995, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the number of cases in which offenders were sentenced for crimes involving methamphetamine totaled 1,167, accounting for 7.6 percent of all drug-related offenses. By FY 2001, 3,444 federal offenders were convicted of committing an offense involving methamphetamine, or 14.2 percent of all drug-related offenses.

The Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center reports that meth availability is very high in the Pacific, Southwest, and West Central regions, while availability in the Great Lakes and Southeast regions is on the rise. DOJ identifies the Central states of Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri as a primary market area for methamphetamine.

"Meth has had a huge impact on the district and an even more serious impact upon the local state courts," said Chief Judge Larry McKinney in the Southern District of Indiana. "Sixty percent of the inmates in the Vigo County jail in Terre Haute, Indiana have been incarcerated because of some connection to methamphetamine use or production. The caseload in our district has increased geometrically with the influx of meth cases, and they are generally conspiracy cases with five or more defendants." 

Chief Judge Joe Billy McDade, has seen a similar increase in cases in the Central District of Illinois. "There was a significant increase in the number of methamphetamine cases in 1998 that has continued up to the present, "he said," with another significant upward spike in 2002, 2003, and probably in the current year, too." McDade expects this upward trend to continue as the drug becomes more popular in the Midwest and Central Illinois.

In Missouri, federal agents seized 248 methamphetamine labs in 1996. By 2001, the number was well over 2,000. "There's been a big increase in meth cases in our district," said Chief Judge Dean Whipple in the Western District of Missouri. "We're seeing an average of 100 cases a year." 

Whipple believes that methamphetamine is attractive to drug users because it can be manufactured locally with easily obtainable ingredients, such as pseudoephedrine, a cold medication.

According to Chief Judge Carol Jackson, cases in the Eastern District of Missouri have introduced a new wrinkle to drug prosecutions. "Unlike other drugs, like crack cocaine, law enforcement can go after the people who have the chemicals necessary to make meth," said Jackson, "and this adds a whole new category of defendants." Most of the meth-related cases Jackson sees involve people arrested for the possession of pseudoephedrine. Under federal and some state laws, it is illegal to possess or distribute pseudoephedrine knowing it will be used to manufacture methamphetamine.

But even as the crackdown on home-grown labs continues, the distribution of meth may be shifting.

"Now our U.S. Attorney says meth is coming in from the southwest states and Mexico," Whipple said. "We're seeing more meth coming in from outside the state, and we're uncovering fewer meth labs."

The Drug Enforcement Administration says Arizona's border location makes it a prime drug importation and transshipment state. Cocaine, marijuana, and heroin are routinely smuggled in, and now methamphetamine and precursor chemicals saturate the state. According to Chief Judge Stephen McNamee, in the last five years, the district has experienced about a 48 percent increase in meth cases.

"In FY 1999, the drug of choice among offenders under supervision in Arizona was cocaine," said McNamee, "followed by marijuana and methamphetamine. But clearly by 2003, methamphetamine had moved into first place as the drug of choice."

McNamee also reports that the drug is having an impact on other types of criminal behavior. "Methamphetamine addicts have been stealing mail from mailboxes," McNamee relates, "and removing checks, which are chemically washed and forged."  The number of mail theft cases in Arizona has increased dramatically in the last two years, and virtually all of the defendants are meth abusers. In FY 1999, there were 21 mail theft defendants sentenced in Arizona; in FY 2003, there were almost five times as many.

"The increase in methamphetamine cases in Arizona, along with the increase in federal charges in which methamphetamine is a factor," said McNamee, "places additional demands on the court at a time when our staffing and budgets are shrinking."

Methamphetamine seizures are highest in Arizona and California compared to other ports of entry. In 2002, the government seized 512.66 kilos at the California ports of entry and 573.26 kilos at the Arizona ports of entry.

In the Central District of California, Chief Judge Consuelo Marshall has seen a substantial increase in meth cases. In 1995, the number of meth cases in the district was 18.4 percent of all sentenced guideline drug offenders, but by 2001 that percentage had increased to 36.5 percent.

According to Chief Judge Marilyn L. Huff in the Southern District of California, chemicals used in the manufacture of meth move through the California ports of entry more than any other post. "This is probably because the 'super labs' for the manufacture of methamphetamine are located in California," said Huff. "The cases involving the discovery of large labs are often major multi-defendant cases and may involve wiretaps."

It isn't too often that the Southern District of California, which is based in San Diego, and the Northern District of Iowa, with courthouses in Cedar Rapids and Sioux City, are mentioned in the same sentence. However, when it comes to managing their meth caseloads, the two courts belong together.

Northern Iowa is ranked sixth in the nation in terms of criminal filings, behind only Southern California and the four other Southwest border courts. Bennett explained: "We're holding weekend and night court in our district to stay ahead. It's a really staggering caseload, and it is all driven by meth cases."

Addicted and a Danger to the Community:  Supervising Meth Addicts