METH HITS VALLEY IN A BIG WAY; ADDICTIVE DRUG RIVALING COCAINE.

Byline: Alex Roth Daily News Staff Writer

The discovery of two methamphetamine laboratories in West Hills last week was a lesson in simple economics for police.

Once relegated to remote outposts in high desert communities, meth labs are popping up in the San Fernando Valley to feed a voracious appetite from a new breed of users.

Police call it the drug of the '90s - a highly addictive form of speed that gives users a feeling of invincibility.

``Now it's filtering out onto the street, to where it's starting to rival cocaine. There are `call out' people who you can call on your pager,'' said Los Angeles police Detective Patrick Dammeier of the Valley Narcotics Bureau.

What police and drug counselors alike are finding is that meth is increasingly the choice among middle-class teen-agers and baby boomers ``trying to rediscover the good old times,'' said state Department of Justice spokesman Mike Van Winkle.

In the San Fernando Valley, police say meth has begun making an appearance on the streets of North Hollywood and Pacoima.

``Way back when, it was called the poor man's cocaine,'' said Gregg McClung, special agent supervisor for the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement's Los Angeles field office. ``Now, in my opinion, it's the drug of the '90s.''

As of July, Los Angeles police had seized 2,403 pounds of methamphetamine this year - more than they seized in all of 1996 and 1997 combined.

And for the first time, meth has begun to rival cocaine in terms of pounds seized by the LAPD. So far this year, police have seized 2,830 pounds of cocaine. Only two years ago, police seized nearly 12 times as much cocaine as meth, according to LAPD statistics.

The trend mirrors a similar one statewide. Last year, state agents actually seized more methamphetamine than cocaine. By comparison, in 1991 state agents seized roughly 30 times more cocaine than meth.

Valley labs

To meet the demand, relatively small methamphetamine labs are turning up in densely populated areas, despite the risk that neighbors will smell the acrid fumes and call police.

Glendale. Sylmar. San Fernando.

``They are all over,'' Dammeier said. ``You find them in a little chicken ranch in Sylmar. You find them in the middle of a normal neighborhood.''

The state is responding by shifting 70 to 75 percent of its anti-drug money to combating methamphetamine.

Measured by the percentage of resources the state spends to combat all drugs, methamphetamine is ``the Chicago Bulls - it's the champ every year and winning every time easily,'' Van Winkle said. ``It used to be one of the four big drugs but it's separated itself from the pack.''

While the laboratories in desert communities typically have fed the drug to a nationwide network, the Valley meth sites mostly are small-time operations where the owner is making just enough for personal use and to sell to a few friends. Police dub these operations ``B & B labs'' - which stands for the animated MTV delinquents Beavis and Butt-head.

``With some of these recipes, they basically cook it in the Mr. Coffee,'' Van Winkle said.

Labs feed new users

Most disturbing to law enforcement and drug counselors alike is that the appetite for methamphetamine has spread beyond motorcycle gangs to the middle class.

Users experience an enormous burst of energy - indeed, some couples take it to improve their sex lives. Others hope to increase their productivity at work.

Nicknamed ``ice,'' ``crank'' and ``crystal meth,'' the drug is cheaper than cocaine and offers a high that can last four to five times as long - 12 hours or more. Unlike crack or heroin, it can be made with ingredients purchased over the counter at a pharmacy. And anyone with access to the Internet can find a recipe.

``It is clear that when you take speed, you work better,'' said Douglas Anglin, director of the University of California, Los Angeles' Drug Abuse Research Center. ``You can work more and you can get it done better. It is truly a performance-enhancing drug.''

These new users either ignore or don't realize the vicious side effects, which include paranoia, violent outbursts and long-term brain damage.

Anglin said meth remains largely a drug of choice for white men, although there's mounting evidence it's becoming popular among Latinos. The drug hasn't found great popularity with African-American drug users.

Desert operations

In contrast to the Valley labs, the desert laboratories are massive operations capable of churning out hundreds of pounds of the drug.

For the big-time producer, a $5,000 investment can buy enough components to make $1 million worth of the drug. Wholesale, one pound could be sold for $4,000 to $7,000, depending on quality. On the street, at $100 a gram, it could bring in up to $45,000. The drug is often sold in a $25 portion - known as a quarter.

State narcotics agents have dubbed these operations ``super labs.'' Authorities said many of these sites are run by Mexican nationals with ties to nationwide rings.

According to the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, one-fifth of all seized labs are run by Mexican nationals.

Health threat

In addition to its health dangers, the drug also poses an enormous risk to the environment. The drug is manufactured using chemicals such as Freon, iodine and phosphorus - and every pound of meth produces five pounds of waste, authorities estimate.

Because of the health threat, authorities are cracking down on companies that sell the chemicals in bulk without complying with new state regulations.

``It damages not only the plants and the critters out there, but people, too,'' said Dale Ferranto, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement's Los Angeles office.

``They pour it down the drain, put it in the sewage, and it gets into the water table, seeps into the aquifers.''

There also is a serious danger of explosion and fire.

On Friday, a methamphetamine laboratory exploded in the east San Gabriel Valley community of Valinda, burning a bungalow to the ground.

Witnesses said two adults and at least two children with burns ran from the home and drove away after the explosion.

``This is an example of how a meth lab could take out a whole neighborhood,'' said Gerald Munoz, a county hazardous materials director.

CAPTION(S):

2 Charts

CHART: (1--2) METHAMPHETAMINE`S RISE

The popularity of methamphetamine has exploded so much that statewide seizures of the drug have outpaced seizures of cocaine. In Los Angeles, authorities have seized more methamphetamine so far this year than they have in the past two years.

SOURCES: Calif. State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and Los Angeles Police Department 

Dionisio Munoz/Daily News