"All it took was one line:" former meth addict

Special Agent Jason Garthaus, Illinois State Police, shows common items used in making meth and warned Warsaw residents of the dangers of meth to users and to the people around them.

“Meth addiction can happen to anyone,” said Tara Bullock, a former meth addict, at the May 2 informational drug awareness meeting at the Bott Center in Warsaw.

Bullock drank and smoked pot in her younger years. She had never touched methamphetamine and never wanted to.

“I met my boyfriend who used meth,” Bullock said. “We had a child together and got married. I was totally against meth and I wanted to show him that he didn't need it.

“One day he was cutting some meth to sell and asked me if he could try just one line to see how it burned. I told him that I would do the line to show him that he didn't need meth. So, I did the line and I was immediately hooked. That's all it took was one line.”

Bullock was arrested by the West Central Illinois Task Force (WCITF) and taken in for an interview. Her interview was shown to the audience on a projector. It showed her six months pregnant and addicted to meth. She had needle tracks in her arms from shooting up meth with needles she had stolen from her diabetic mother.

Bullock had already lost her other two children and her husband had just been taken to prison for meth. She had lost everything to meth and had nowhere to go and nothing to show except a nasty addiction and an unborn baby that would most likely die if she continued on the same path she was on.

Bullock has been clean for three years.

“I thank God for these police officers,” she said. “They saved my life when they arrested me.”

Bullock gave birth to a healthy little girl three months after the interview. Two days after her daughter was born, the baby was taken away to a foster care home where her two other siblings had been placed.

“I got her back when she was 10 months old,” Bullock said. “Now I see my kids every day. I moved near my other two children's foster parents home in Quincy, and I have custody of my little girl.

“Meth took everything from me,” Bullock said. “I lost my two children, my husband was in prison and I was a 23-year-old meth addict, six months pregnant and sitting behind bars.”

Inspector Mike Norris from the WCITF in Quincy and Special Agent Jason Garthaus from the Illinois State Police gave a slide show presentation on meth and other addictive drugs.

“Meth is such a huge problem in Illinois,” Garthaus said. “This is a constant battle we're trying to get under control. Lisa Madigan fought long and hard to get a bill passed, restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine in Illinois, which has been a tremendous help. Unfortunately, people on meth can still get the pills. They just recruit more people to get them.”

Community awareness and response is what needs to be accomplished to help reduce the number of meth users and manufacturers.

“Everything we do is based on information from the community and informants,” Norris said. “Anytime we get a tip from the community we can act on it and be one step closer to putting a stop to the meth problem in our area.”

The agents showed the audience ingredients and containers used in a meth lab for the purpose of making meth.

“Everything you see here can be bought at Wal-Mart or a grocery store,” Garthaus said.

Pictures of cannabis, crack cocaine, double stacked ecstasy pills, Ice, and Nazi dope were shown to the audience.

“Not only is cannabis grown outside, but people will grow it inside their own homes, garages or sheds,” Norris said. “They use fluorescent lighting when growing cannabis inside.

“Crack cocaine looks like little pieces of rock and can be white or yellowish in color.”

“Ecstasy pills are a big thing with kids right now,” Garthaus said. “Ecstasy is a form of methamphetamine. Double stacked ecstasy pills have twice the dosage. If a double stacked ecstasy pill is taken, the body temperature rises to 105 degrees and higher. The cells in the body start to come apart inside and you cannot stop it. There is nothing that a person can take to stop the effects of ecstasy. They will lay there and literally bleed to death inside.”

Things to look for in ecstasy users are Vicks inhalers, pacifiers, dust masks, blow pops and glow sticks.

“Ecstasy heightens all of the senses,” Garthaus said. “Ecstasy users enjoy inhaling Vicks because of the cool menthol sensation, which is heightened with ecstasy. Pacifiers are used because ecstasy causes the user to grind their teeth together when on it, so they chew on a pacifier. Dust masks are used by spreading the Vicks on it and inhaling it that way. Glow sticks are visually appealing to ecstasy users.”

Ice is a term that refers to pure meth. It looks almost crystal-like in appearance. It can be smoked, crushed up and snorted, or crushed up with water added to it and injected.

Nazi dope is the most common meth of choice in this area, according to Norris. It is manufactured with anhydrous ammonia and household items. The drug is by no means clean, but meth users do not care as long as it gets them high. Products like drain cleaner, lithium batteries, ether and liquid heet are some of the hazardous chemicals used in making meth.

“The process of making meth is extremely dangerous,” Norris said. “There are a lot of chemical reactions taking place during the meth making process. One of the biggest worries we have is explosions. Anytime you put anhydrous in any type of metal, it starts breaking down the metal, eating away at it, causing it to become weak.”

“Anhydrous is one of the key ingredients to making meth,” Garthaus said. “However, it is really hard for us to catch them stealing it because they can fill their containers so fast with it. It takes them about 30 seconds to do it.

“They use anything from drink coolers and fire extinguishers to LP tanks to put anhydrous in. Anytime you see a modified LP tank, with a bluish green colored valve, it's a good indicator it's used for meth. With a tank like that there are 3,300 pounds per square inch of pressure inside it, just waiting to explode.”

When encountering a meth lab, the chance of explosion is not the only danger. People can be killed in a meth lab just from the toxic fumes from the chemicals. The chemicals are so toxic, concentrated traces of the chemicals have been found soaked in walls of neighboring apartments from where a meth lab was.

Pseudoephederine pills are the other key ingredient in making meth.

“Typically we see a 1,000 pill cook in meth labs,” Garthaus said.

Pills are popped out of their blister packets, put together and ground up. Pseudoephedrine from the pills is extracted with antifreeze or liquid heet.

The layer of liquid is filtered using coffee filters. The remaining mixture is combined with anhydrous, then mixed with lithium strips from batteries. This is the actual cooking part. There is no heat involved in making meth. It is all chemical process. After it is “cooked” it is quenched with ether or starting fluid. There are more chemicals involved and more processing.

Chemicals to look for that aid in the production of meth are pills containing pseudo-ephedrine such as cold and sinus pills, drain cleaner/rubbing alcohol, lithium batteries, anhydrous ammonia, red phosphorous, starter fluid or de-icer, muriatic or hydrochloric acid, lye and iodine.