meth = pee
Meth Users Turning To Urine To Get High
(WCCO) When Wright County deputies opened up a smelly rented storage locker last June, they had no idea what they would find. Inside a man had stored 50 gallon jugs of urine.
"The officers that responded looked at it and said, 'yeah, that's odd,'" said Wright County Narcotics Sgt. Becky Howell.
The deputies gave the go-ahead to the owners to throw out the urine. When they did, they got sick.
A week and half later, that report hit Howell's desk.
"I said, 'Oh my gosh, this is a meth lab, this is a urine extraction lab,'" Howell said.
It's a new way to get meth. Some people drink the meth-tainted urine outright to get high. Others filter the drug back out through the cooking process.
"I'm not 100 percent sure what this guy was doing," said Howell. "Five years ago, I probably would have been surprised at that. But now, knowing and understanding methamphetamine and an addict's addiction to it, it doesn't surprise me."
It did surprise Jeremy Rezac. He's a recovering meth addict who used to cook up to $20,000 worth of the drug a day. Back then, he said it was easy to buy pseudoephedrine or ephedrine in the form of pills.
"A couple hundred bucks, send junkies, out to get your pills for you. A couple of hours later you were ready to rock and roll," he said.
But all of that changed in the summer of 2005 when lawmakers passed one of the toughest meth laws in the country. It added 10 new BCA agents, dealt out new penalties for child endangerment and placed limits on the amount of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine one person can buy in a month. It also put those pills behind the pharmacy counter and made everyone sign a log.
The state said that brought homegrown meth labs down by 70 percent.
"You can't find that product no more. You can't find it on the streets no more. The government did what they needed to do," said Rezac. "It takes a lot of time and money and I think the average meth user, meth cook, they don't want the hassle anymore."
Howell said there's still a group that does deal with the hassle and has quickly found a way around the law.
She's seen addicts travel in packs to different drug stores because they know the pharmacies do not communicate with each other.
Of the big retail chains, only Walgreens and Target keep an internal database to track pseudoephedrine pills purchases within their own stores. None of chains share with their competitors.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_033094010.html
(WCCO) When Wright County deputies opened up a smelly rented storage locker last June, they had no idea what they would find. Inside a man had stored 50 gallon jugs of urine.
"The officers that responded looked at it and said, 'yeah, that's odd,'" said Wright County Narcotics Sgt. Becky Howell.
The deputies gave the go-ahead to the owners to throw out the urine. When they did, they got sick.
A week and half later, that report hit Howell's desk.
"I said, 'Oh my gosh, this is a meth lab, this is a urine extraction lab,'" Howell said.
It's a new way to get meth. Some people drink the meth-tainted urine outright to get high. Others filter the drug back out through the cooking process.
"I'm not 100 percent sure what this guy was doing," said Howell. "Five years ago, I probably would have been surprised at that. But now, knowing and understanding methamphetamine and an addict's addiction to it, it doesn't surprise me."
It did surprise Jeremy Rezac. He's a recovering meth addict who used to cook up to $20,000 worth of the drug a day. Back then, he said it was easy to buy pseudoephedrine or ephedrine in the form of pills.
"A couple hundred bucks, send junkies, out to get your pills for you. A couple of hours later you were ready to rock and roll," he said.
But all of that changed in the summer of 2005 when lawmakers passed one of the toughest meth laws in the country. It added 10 new BCA agents, dealt out new penalties for child endangerment and placed limits on the amount of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine one person can buy in a month. It also put those pills behind the pharmacy counter and made everyone sign a log.
The state said that brought homegrown meth labs down by 70 percent.
"You can't find that product no more. You can't find it on the streets no more. The government did what they needed to do," said Rezac. "It takes a lot of time and money and I think the average meth user, meth cook, they don't want the hassle anymore."
Howell said there's still a group that does deal with the hassle and has quickly found a way around the law.
She's seen addicts travel in packs to different drug stores because they know the pharmacies do not communicate with each other.
Of the big retail chains, only Walgreens and Target keep an internal database to track pseudoephedrine pills purchases within their own stores. None of chains share with their competitors.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_033094010.html
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