Original subtitles

Narrator: America and Asia are in the grip of an epidemic.

Cop: Coming in!

Narrator: Methamphetamine, one of the world's most

powerful stimulants, can be made at home like

modern day Moonshine from chemicals found in any

pharmacy or hardware store.

Mike Hall: The way the meth is right now,

it's like nothing I've ever seen in my career.

Narrator: It's toxic and it destroys lives.

Mark Buckner: Burnt everything I had

everything I own.

Narrator: Addiction quickly takes hold.

Organized crime steps in.

And law enforcement is left to face the rising

crime wave.

Cop: Now would be a good time to identify yourself

Narrator: Producers, traffickers, dealers,

users, doctors, police,

they're all part of the $300 billion a year global

industry that is, Drugs Incorporated.

Methamphetamine addiction plagues America and much

of the world.

It can be injected, smoked or snorted,

and one hit gets a user high for as long as eight hours.

More addictive than cocaine or alcohol,

meth traps users into a devastating cycle.

All over the U.S., thousands of petty dealers

sell methamphetamine under the street names 'crank',

'crystal', 'glass', or 'ice'.

A man going by the alias Juan Lopez began his drug

career selling crack cocaine for a Hispanic

street gang known as the Mexican Mafia.

Lopez: The drugs have changed a lot you know in

the last, ten years.

Meth has taken over.

Narrator: LA.

The mid '90s.

A new product appears on the streets: Crystalline

methamphetamine.

It's cheaper than crack cocaine and more potent.

It becomes an instant hit with drug users.

Lopez: All the crack users went to smoke meth.

All the people that were snorting coke went to

snort Meth.

Narrator: While serving time in jail,

a fellow inmate offers Lopez the chance to move

up from street dealer to trafficker.

Lopez: I met a guy who was from Mexico.

And we got to talking about dope and he told me

he would be able to hook me up once we were both

out.

Narrator: Lopez now has a solid connection.

Once free, he waits to hear from his contact.

Lopez: He got out And through him we were able

to go into different places in Mexico and find

dope.

Find all the deals.

Narrator: Large Mexican drug trafficking

organizations produce methamphetamine on an

industrial scale.

Lopez starts to deal with representatives from a

cartel in Sinaloa, in northwest Mexico.

Lopez: We would place an order and send the money

to Mexico and then they would cook it for us

there.

We paid about $45,000 for 13 pounds.

Narrator: Lopez's contact produces methamphetamine

by the ton, in a 'super-lab' hidden in the

Mexican countryside.

In the lab, cartel drug workers convert

methamphetamine's chemical ingredients,

ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine,

into their own brand of the drug.

It's marketed to the masses as 'Mexican Ice' or

'Crystal'.

Lopez's 13 pound order has a street value of over

half a million dollars.

Lopez: Then they would work it from deep into

Mexico to the California-Mexico border,

and then we would cross it ourselves.

Narrator: San Ysidro is Lopez's crossing of choice.

This point of entry between Tijuana, Mexico

and San Diego, California is the busiest

land border crossing in the world,

and America's front line in the war on drug s.

Lopez: We had a car rigged with a hidden

compartment, put the dope in the hidden compartment

and drive across the border.

Narrator: After waiting in traffic for nearly five

nerve-wracking hours, Lopez finally crosses the

border and makes his way to a stash house in

California.

Here, Lopez cuts the drug with empty fillers in

order to stretch his product further.

Lopez: Once we got home we'd cut it with,

er, MSM, like a horse feed.

If we did 8 ounces, it would be a 50% cut.

As fast as it came in, is as fast as it went out.

I wouldn't sit on dope for more than a day.

Your dope is going faster.

Your dope starts to sell quick,

So you got to pick up, enough to last you a week.

So you're up to 5-10 pounds,

and it just slowly works up from there.

We got to a point to where we were selling about

50-75 pounds a month.

Narrator: At the height of his operation,

this former lowly street dealer owns nine

properties and clears over $50,000 a week.

Lopez takes great pains to avoid law enforcement,

but then, in 2005, a police surveillance

operation catches him in the act.

To avoid life in prison, he turns informant for the

US government.

Now, he lives in grave danger.

The cartels are known to kill those who betray them.

Lopez: Out here in the streets if you

have a green light, you're pretty much dead.

And anybody that knows that you have green light

has the go-ahead to go ahead and to kill you.

If that's what they need to do.

Narrator: The Mexican meth trade relies on hundreds

of traffickers and dealers like Lopez.

Every year the cartels produce approximately

220 tons of meth for the US market alone,

with an estimated revenue of 8 billion dollars.

Meeting this demand requires industrial

quantities of the chemical ingredients.

To obtain these so-called 'precursor' chemicals,

the Mexican cartels turn to the world's main source

of ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine: Asia.

In China and India, a small number of

pharmaceutical factories produce thousands of tons

of pseudo-ephedrine for legitimate use.

Criminal middlemen legally purchase vast quantities

of these chemicals, and then sell them to illegal

meth producers.

In Asia, a kilo, or about 2.2 pounds,

of pseudo-ephedrine costs $68.But international

criminal organizations, like the Mexican cartels,

pay up to $10,000 for the same kilo.

The chemicals are sent to super-labs all over the

world, where they're cooked into

methamphetamine and distributed regionally.

The trade supplies up to 51 million users

worldwide.

In the U.S., imported Mexican methamphetamine is

rapidly spreading eastward.

With increased Mexican immigration,

traffickers and dealers now hide within

law-abiding Hispanic communities across

America.

Many roads from the Mexican border lead to

70% of the 250 tons of meth coming into

the U.S.

originates from Mexican sources,

like the one used by Juan Lopez.

But Mexican Ice isn't the only kind of

methamphetamine available.

Unlike heroin or cocaine, methamphetamine can also

be made at home, using a concoction of readily

available household chemicals.

Barry County, Missouri: a sparsely populated area of

fields and farmsteads that stretch for almost 800 miles.

Narcotics Agent Larry Keen is from the South West

Missouri Drug Taskforce.

Larry: Hey Adam, how many times have we arrested this guy?

Adam: I've arrested him 3 times, over.

Narrator: He's on his way to his 40th methamphetamine bust

of the year.

Adam: I guess we're gonna go to the door with you and

I'll go to the garage with the other two agents

Larry: I guess i go to the door with you guys then

Narrator: The target is a local man, suspected of manufacturing

the drug and dealing it to others.

Unlike other drugs, methamphetamine can be

cooked in home labs like these.

Larry: Maybe you ought to go the other way.

Adam: On this road too.

Narrator: Larry supervises a team of six officers who

surround the house.

They waste no time busting in.

Larry: Coming in!

Cop: i've got you covered.

Larry: On the ground, face down!

On the ground, face down!

Cop: Get down!

Larry: Face down.

Narrator: Inside, the officers find the suspect

and another man cooking a fresh batch of

methamphetamine.

Larry: So in order to keep them from destroying any

evidence, we've made entry and secured him,

and there is a lab here, so.

Narrator: Methamphetamine can be produced using

rudimentary equipment and household chemicals.

Larry: Phew, still stinks in here.

Narrator: "Cooks" follow a number of different

recipes.

But the officers have never seen this kind of

home lab before.

Larry: First one.

It's our first one.

Narrator: They're using the new 'one pot' method.

A method so simple that anyone can now make meth.

Larry: Interesting.

Very interesting.

Narrator: A few essential ingredients,

including ammonium fertilizer and lithium

from household batteries, are placed in a simple

soda bottle.

The chemicals react and produce methamphetamine,

along with poisonous and explosive fumes.

Larry: This'll be his gas generator with his

muriatic, muriatic acid and, er, salt.

Oh, phew, it stinks in there too.

Narrator: In the trash, Larry discovers the core

active ingredient: a cold and flu medication

containing pseudo-ephedrine that can

be bought over the counter at any local pharmacy.

Larry: He just bought these,

he bought these pills today at 12:45,

so, and it's what, 2.45 now,

so you know if you're getting,

if you're getting two and a half grams every hour

and a half and you're doing it for five to six

hours a day, you can end up with a pretty good

chunk of dope.

This is probably about a gram worth right here.

Give or take.

Narrator: Like many "home producers"

this cook is an addict who makes meth for extra

money to fuel his own drug habit.

Nearly 1500 meth labs were discovered in

Missouri in 2009, making it one of the worst-hit

states in the epidemic of home meth cooki ng.

Larry: I don't know where this 'one pot' method

started but it's here now.

So if he's doing it, he said he wasn't even

cooking before this, he started cooking when he

learned how to do the 'one pot' method and so if he's

doing it, there's more people doing it.

Narrator: For Larry Keen and his taskforce,

busting home meth cooks and breaking the supply

chain of traffickers like Juan Lopez is all part of

fighting the larger war on drugs.

Narrator: Methamphetamine addiction is a global

epidemic, and nowhere more than America.

The largest methamphetamine market in

the western hemisphere.

Dealers sell meth on the streets,

and a new wave of self-manufacturing means

it's even easier to produce at home.

In the state of Missouri, an estimated 53,000 people

use methamphetamine.

Steve Box was an addict for ten years.

He first tried meth at the age of 25 while

experimenting with cocaine.

Steve: The very first time was when you would be

using cocaine, and somebody would have some

meth and it would look similar to cocaine, and,

and you would like snort some and you'd know

immediately it wasn't cocaine that it was crank.

'cause it would it burns like somebody sticking a

hot poker up your nose.

Narrator: Steve is one of the only 6% of addicts who

manage to kick the habit.

Now he's dedicated to helping others fight meth addiction.

He's written two books about his struggle and

runs a Christian campaign called Meth=Sorcery.

Steve: When I got off the meth,

I wrote the book Meth=Sorcery,

and we send the book to prisoners that are locked

up in prisons and we've probably been close to

100,000 books put into the American county jail

prison system.

Narrator: He receives hundreds of letters from

meth addicts seeking his suppor t .

Steve: Just a few today from Texas,

Texas and Oklahoma.

I've got letters from, believe it or not,

serial killers in New York to doctors, lawyers,

preachers.

Just about every walk of life.

It's not always the guy that's over in the trailer

park, you know, it's, er, just, you name it.

I think i've received a letter from about every

profession there is.

Narrator: Steve once owned a successful business

manufacturing gym equipment.

Snorting meth, or 'crank' as he calls it,

helped him keep up with the flow of orders.

Steve: I noticed with the crank that I could stay up

you know, 24 hours a day and I could work for you

know, a week or 2 straight without stopping.

Narrator: Methamphetamine makes the user feel

euphoric, alert and powerful.

Steve soon begins smoking his meth in a pipe to get

a stronger, faster high.

Eventually he starts dealing the drug,

and his business begins to suffer.

Steve: You know, I got to where I was just,

I was selling meth and I was no longer building my

weight equipment.

And you know, the shop was still kind of like open,

but we were, we were just doing something different.

Narrator: Meth's extraordinary rush leads

to horrific after-effects, including severe

depression and an inability to eat or sleep.

Steve: You feel like you want,

you wanna just rip your face off.

And when you do finally get some real sleep you

twitch, and you jerk.

Narrator: To avoid the withdrawal symptoms,

Steve smokes even more of the drug.

Weeks without sleep eventually leave him with

severe paranoid psychosis.

Steve: And so I might've spent my day, one day,

would and I did this tapping my own phone.

Numbers would appear to me like a phone number,

And I would cross-reference it in the

names and numbers phone book and you would,

might end up at a stranger's house just over

a set of numbers that appeared out of thin air

and you got their address out of a phone book and

you're sitting outside their house with a

shotgun.

Narrator: After years of abuse,

Steve hits rock bottom.

Steve: Everybody lost their trust in me.

My wife hated me.

Went from having a lot to having nothing.

And just wanted out.

Wanted out of that world, wanted out of the meth world.

And, er, you know, and found a way out.

Man 1: It's a good day to be in the house of the

Lord, is it not?

Narrat or: Steve finds salvation in his local

church community, where incredibly,

almost half the congregation has had

problems with methamphetamine.

Preacher: How many are here in this room who were

at one time in bondage to

methamphetamines?

Narrator: Denise Ledbetter had a long history of drug

abuse before she discovered meth.

Denise: How I first encountered

methamphetamine was.

I fell in love with the wrong guy and he cooked

meth, so I didn't have to even go looking for it,

it was just right there.

Narrator: Methamphetamine gives a sense of

overwhelming pleasure.

Denise: You know It's such a euphoric high, you know,

that you just want more and more and more and

you'd do anything for it.

Narrator: But Denise soon finds herself living a

bizarre existence.

Denise: Typical day would start at midnight,

you just want another line,

you want another pipe, you want another shot in your arm.

And then you can, you know,

go and do something crazy, like mow the yard again

for the third time this week,

or clean the house again for the third time this day.

You know, I used to clean the bathroom with a

toothbrush, you know, I'd stay in the bathroom and clean.

Narrator: Large doses of methamphetamine can also

cause hallucinations.

Like LSD, meth-induced delusions seem entirely real.

Denise: I'm gonna do a big blast and go outside to

the woods.

You know, and I saw owls in the tree with baseball

shoes on and baseball caps on.

And I was like: oh that's cute, that's funny!

Preacher: Evil men will burn in the, pits of hell.

Narrator: In deeply religious areas,

many believers see meth as the work of the devil

because of the demonic visions so many users

experience.

Preacher: Methamphetamines,

simply put, is sorcery and witchcraft in its highest

degree.

Everybody has the same set of symptoms.

They see devils and demons.

Denise: You know, when you first see 'em it's like,

ha-ha, you know, what was that, you know.

What was that?

And you're out in the woods and you hear things,

and you think, oh,

you know, so it's kind of fun,

you kind of play around with the devil.

You know, and then it gets serious, you know,

and then it gets, you don't want 'em in your life.

Narrator: As the mind deteriorates,

so does the body.

The most dramatic physical symptom of meth abuse is

known as 'meth mouth'.

As users grind their teeth,

the chemicals wear away the enamel,

and the gums and salivary glands dry out,

causing the teeth to rot and decay.

Long-term users become fearful and violent.

Over 80% of female users report domestic violence,

including physical and sexual abuse.

Denise: I was gutter trash, he told me,

and he would hit me and push me down and throw

cigarettes on me, and pick up a can of green beans,

can of whatever he could find and throw at me.

Throw lighter fluid on me, and throw a match to me.

And I mean, all those things sound horrible and

you look, and you look at me and you think,

why would you put up with that?

But I did put up with it because of the drugs.

Preacher: Everybody that i've ever talked to has

been on meth.

Narrator: Every year, over 125,000

Americans like Steve and Denise seek treatment

for meth addiction.

For many, belief in a higher power is the only way out.

Dangerous to make and dangerous to take

Methamphetamine is the most abused hard drug on the planet

Almost one million grams of meth are snorted, smoked, or injected

every day.

And it's spreading like wildfire

Today, many law enforcement agencies say it's

the number one drug threat in America.

Hall: It's gonna be busy.

Ex-basketball player Mike Hall is

director of the 10th Judicial District Drug Task Force

in Athens, Tennessee.

Hall: We need to utilize

a couple of intellegence groups.

Narrator: Standing 6'9" tall,

Hall is a towering figure in the local fight against

meth.

Mike Hall: The problem is when they used to make

methamphetamine they had to have a structure.

They would have a house or,

a trailer or a hotel room.

Now they can be sitting in a car just like we're

doing, drive down the road and make methamphetamine.

Everything is in this one pot,

and it's just the size of a two liter bottle.

Narrator: Athens is in an area of and farmland and lush

forest that causes hay fever and other allergies.

Mike Hall: We have one of the highest allergy counts

in the South East.

Pollen.

And so we have a lot of legitimate people who need

cold medicines, pseudo pills,

and all that stuff can also be used to make

methamphetamine.

Narrator: Across town, the drug taskforce pulls over

a vehicle.

In 2006, Federal anti-meth laws cracked down on

methamphetamine production.

Sales of pseudo-ephedrine are now strictly limited

to 9 grams a month per person.

Mike Hall: He's already started breaking packages down.

Narrator: They suspect the driver is one of a new

breed of criminal: "smurfers"

a name given to them by law enforcement.

Mike Hall: I believe it came from the famous

cartoon in the States, was The Smurfs and when people

go to Smurf it's all these little Smurfs,

all these people bringing back pseudo,

pseudo ephedrine and they bring it back to Papa

Smurf, the main cook.

Narrator: Smurfers are usually addicts who visit

numerous pharmacies buying their quota of

pseudo-ephedrine.

Then they hand them over to methamphetamine cooks

in exchange for dope or cash.

Mike Hall: This one pharmacy we're looking to

today is in the top five percent in the nation for

pseudo sales which is amazing because we're not

New York City, we're not Los Angeles, California.

We're in Athens, Tennessee.

Er, and they roughly have about 600 pseudo sales

a week.

Narrator: Hall's taskforce surrounds a local pharmacy

waiting for smurfers.

The pharmacy estimates that 80% of all its

pseudo-ephedrine sales go towards meth production.

Angie: And the cars normally will park along

that concrete wall because they think I guess the

video cameras can't see their vehicle.

And they'll take turns going inside buying their

pseudo.

Narrator: Inside the pharmacy,

a packet of pseudo-ephedrine pills

costs $5, but outside it changes hands illegally

for up to $50.

The taskforce doesn't wait long before

smurfing activity begins.

Radio Voice: A girl opened the door,

put her hand in another guy's hand.

And now they're leaving.

Narrator: In the pharmacy parking lot,

a girl is seen receiving pills from a smurfer.

Narrator: As she exits the pharmacy,

Mike's team swoops in.

Carrie Beth: I'm sorry.

Narrator: She's the girlfriend of a suspected

meth cook.

Hall orders the car and its occupant to be

thoroughly searched.

Mike Hall: Well they probably, they probably

need to go to rehab.

Okay.

The only way we might be able to.

Narrator: The suspect denies possessing any

drugs, but the police soon find

what they're looking for.

Hidden in pill bottles is Methamphetamine,

packaged for re-sale.

Mike Hall: Is it meth?

Narrator: The suspect is just 18 years old.

As a father himself, the girls age makes Mike Hall

even more determined to stamp out meth.

Mike Hall: I'm a dad.

It's depressing.

I mean you get 18, 19 year olds out here making

methamphetamine, it's terrible, it's terrible.

Carrie Beth: It's my boyfriend's that's what it is.

Narrator: Each gram of meth is worth at least

$100, making it more expensive than

heroin or cocaine.

Mike Hall: Er, somebody asked me if we would win

the war on methamphetamine,

the war on drugs, I says: "I might not win it,

but I'm not gonna lose it on my back."

So here we go.

Cop: Come on, girl, get in the back seat.

Narrator: The girl is arrested.

She'll soon enter a treatment program.

As night falls, the smurfing activity

escalates.

While patrolling the road outside the pharmacy,

taskforce agents stop 20 smurfers in just one hour.

Inside the store, an Undercover officer watches

the activity.

Undercover Cop: Yeah, yeah, he,

he wants to buy several boxes.

He said he bought last night.

Narrator: This man is part of a gang of smurfers

waiting outside in a vehicle.

He buys the pills.

But before the smurfers can make their getaway,

the taskforce springs into action.

Cop: Put your hands up.

Put your hands on top of the car.

Narrator: Smurfers are the taskforce's best lead to

the meth cooks.

The threat of jail is enough for these men to

reveal the address of their drug source.

Mike Hall goes across town to investigate.

Cop: Police Department.

State Police.

Narrator: On any drug bust,

Mike's main concern is gunfire.

Mike Hall: If you're ready it would be a good time

for you to identify yourself.

I'd hate for you to get shot

Narrator: But on a meth lab bust,

he must also contend with the risk of chemical

hazards.

Mike Hall: spoons with residue on.

Narrator: Fumes produced by manufacturing meth are

extremely toxic and volatile.

Here, they discover only a meth pipe and some drug

paraphernalia.

The taskforce examines the premises,

but they're too late.

The cook has apparently fled into the night.

Cop: I mean he's pretty much broke through that

field right there, round the yard,

hit the road and then cut up this driveway right

here.

Narrator: But evidence of drug activity remains.

A horse-trailer outside contains numerous

bloody syringes.

Cop: Oh, it's full of blood!

Oh my God!

Narrator: Like most meth cooks,

this person is obviously addicted to the drug.

Cop: Both needles full of blood!

Narrator: Any meth-cooking materials in the trailer

may be heavily contaminated with waste

chemicals produced during the cooking process.

These chemicals are dangerous to humans as

well as the surrounding environment.

Chemical residues can poison wild animals or

even pollute the water table.

The agents suit up in biohazard gear to protect

them from chemical burns or infection.

Mike Hall's worst fears are confirmed:

the horse-trailer is filled with contaminated

meth trash.

Mike Hall: They're so paranoid,

they're afraid to throw anything out,

they're afraid to throw anything to where they

feel like law enforcement or somebody could find it

and catch them.

You see a lot of staph infection, MRSA,

different types of diseases you know that you

get when you're just dirty.

Every one of these plastic bottles and glass

jars represents a cook.

Every time you see one of those plastic bottles

laying there that means they cooked.

Evidently they like to use needles here which is a

tremendous hazard for us especially if they carry

AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, you know whatever.

Narrator: From the pharmacy,

through manufacture, to injection,

the meth drug supply chain is ravaging once peaceful

rural communities across America.

And narcotics officers are left literally picking up

the pieces.

Narrator: The volatile substances used to

manufacture meth can cause an explosion powerful

enough to kill.

The Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville has one of the

nation's premiere burns units.

Patients are flown here from all over the

southeastern U.S.

At any time, victims of exploding methamphetamine

labs make up about a quarter of the unit's

patients.

Mark Buckner has been in intensive care for 53 days.

He suffered burns on over 60% of his body when his

meth lab exploded.

Buckner: All it took was one drop of sweat.

That sweat hit the, hit the bottle and it blowed

up in my hands.

I was in my RV.

I've never seen nothing burn that quick.

It blowed me out of the door.

It burned everything I had, everything I owned.

Narrator: Mark's mother holds down his tracheotomy

tube, a surgically inserted airway in his

throat, to help him speak.

Buckner's mother: I come every day, don't I?

Narrator: Mark was once under constant pressure to

supply other addicts with meth.

Buckner: I don't know, 50-75 people over here.

Car loads all day long,in and out in and out.

I'd go 2 or 3 weeks without sleeping.

Narrator: When he was flown in by heliCopter,

Mark was near death.

His injuries caused renal and respiratory failure.

Dr. Jeffrey Guy is Mark's surgeon and the

Burns Unit Director.

Doctor Guy: When a flash burns comes you know,

it's thousands of degrees.

And he's burned on roughly 60% of his body.

This is absolutely a life threatening injury.

And as you can see in his case,

there's certainly a life changing injury.

We literally have to kind of shave this burnt skin

off, this is dead skin, and then we do a series of

skin graphs where we literally shave the

healthy skin from his lower legs and we

basically transplant to the burns.

Narrator: But Mark's case is just one of many.

Doctor Guy: We typically have about 20 patients on

the service that have some sort of meth related

event, where they're using meth, or cooking meth.

We get about one, you know,

true meth lab explosion about once every couple of

weeks, you know, maybe every three or four weeks,

that ends somebody in the intensive care unit or on

life support.

Narrator: Mark survived the tragedy,

but his life is forever changed.

Buckner: I'll never be able to go out in the

sun like I used to or nothing.

It's changed everything that's true.

Narrator: Methamphetamine cooks are often unwilling

to admit the cause of their injuries.

Dr. Guy looks for the telltale signs

of meth use.

Doctor Guy: Meth mouth is certainly the most obvious.

Er, meth mouth is rotting of the teeth and it's

pretty dramatic.

Er, you'll see people who are just er,

just totally emaciated.

The other thing is that their bodies are just so

revved up, particularly if they're still coming off

the meth and since their body has seen so many

drugs that our medications won't touch them.

Narrator: Mark Buckner is one of the 48% of meth

users who have no health insurance and place a

great strain on the hospital resources.

Doctor Guy: You know, when all is said and done,

this will probably cost a million dollars.

Um, and it's the right thing to do to take care

of somebody like that.

But that's a million dollars of uncompensated care.

This one hospital last year did

approximately 300 million dollars in charity care.

This one hospital in Central Tennessee.

Um, and so you have to question how long can one

hospital provide 300 million dollars of

uncompensated care.

There has to be an end to that.

Narrator: Overall healthcare costs for

Methamphetamine users in the U.S.

alone are estimated at almost $864 million

dollars per year.

Buckner:Hell, it's not worth it.

I've done it, not because I wanted to get high,

I done it for the money, that's it.

And no amount of money is worth this much pain.

Narrator: Mark will need more skin grafts and it's

unlikely he'll ever regain full use of his hands.

Serious meth burn victims need ongoing care for

years.

Sometimes decades.

Narrator: Methamphetamine is among the most

addictive substances in the world.

Despite the horrors of exploding meth labs,

many burn patients still return to meth abuse.

Leading Neuro-pharmacologist,

Dr. Edythe London, has spent her entire career

trying to figure out why users are so addicted to

this drug.

Doctor London: Neuro-pharmacologists are

interested in understanding how drugs

work, and particularly how medications might work and

interact with brain function.

Narrator: Maggie Lavalle is a member of

Dr. London's meth study.

Maggie: Well a typical week if I'm a full and

flourished meth addict, I can go anywhere from,

I can smoke anywhere from $200 worth of meth to $400

worth of meth.

Out of my mind.

Doctor London: Go and close your eyes for me for

a second.

Narrator: The volunteers undergo a series of PET

scans that produce images that allow Dr London to

look inside the brain and analyse the drug's

effects.

Methamphetamine causes the brain to release chemical

messengers called 'neurotransmitters' that

make us think, feel and behave in a particular

way.

Dr London: One of the neurotransmitters that's

primarily affected by methamphetamine is

dopamine.

Now we think of dopamine as the pleasure

transmitter.

Narrator: Many narcotics stimulate a flow of

dopamine to the brain.

But methamphetamine floods the brain up to 1200% more

than normal.

Dr. London: There is a huge release of dopamine and

that produces a feeling of intense euphoria.

It also produces feelings of competence.

Narrator: But the areas receiving these chemical

messages, the dopamine receptors,

are damaged by toxins in the methamphetamine.

Over long term use, the receptors begin to fail.

Meth addicts may have up to 16% fewer dopamine

receptors than a normal brain.

Doctor London: We've recently shown that the

level of dopamine activity in the brain is highly

correlated with impulsivity.

The fewer dopamine receptors the more

impulsive a person is.

So dopamine in the methamphetamine abuser is

very much linked to self-control.

Narrator: This lack of self-control not only adds

to the severity of the addiction,

but also leads to other violent or compulsive

behavior.

Maggie Lavalle found herself unable to control

an impulse to steal.

Maggie Lavalle: I embezzled $32,000.

I closed down a gas station that I worked at.

Whatever I needed I had it 'cause I took the money.

Narrator: Dr. London has discovered that the brain

damage can often, but not always, repair itself.

While the search for a medical cure continues,

the only real option available to addicts is

behavioral therapy, like drug counseling.

Maggie Lavalle's story isn't unusual.

In some Californian cities,

nearly a third of all persons arrested test

positive for methamphetamine.

At the Santa Barbara County Jail,

Chuck McClain is determined to combat the

problem.

Chuck: We started 12 years ago.

The chief of the jail at that time decided that,

you know, we need to get something going here

because, you know, they run a 75% recidivism rate.

Narrator: McClain has 150 inmates in behavioural

therapy for drug abuse.

65% of them are meth users.

They receive a combination of reading materials,

group therapy sessions and one-on-one counselling.

Like many inmates at Santa Barbara,

Dave Wagman is a repeat offender.

Dave: The way I use is, they're called runs or

binges I would inject myself up to 5 or 6 times

a day if the stuff was reasonably good.

Probably the last five years I cannot stop doing

it until I get arrested.

Narrator: For many, Chuck's program works.

34% of the inmates are caught re-offending far

lower than the jail's 75% average.

Still it means over a third of his participants

will return to jail.

Chuck will see some of these faces again and

again.

Chuck: You have children?

Olga: Seven.

Chuck: You have seven kids?

Olga: Yes.

Chuck: How old are you?

Olga: I'm 34.

Chuck: 34.

Narrator: Keeping a prisoner in Santa Barbara

Jail costs $26,000 a year.

It's a heavy burden for the taxpayers.

Nationally, the cost of methamphetamine-related

crime is estimated at around $4 billion.

Chuck: When they're out there using,

they're not working, they're not contributing

to society.

They're taking away from society.

It takes a lot of money to house 'em,

it takes a lot of money for the police force to

arrest them and so on and so forth.

And that's a huge cost.

And that's what this is all about,

is reducing the cost to the community at large of

addiction.

Narrator: Santa Barbara is the only county facility

in California to offer a full-fledged treatment

program.

Until scientists like Edythe London find a cure

for methamphetamine addiction,

America's jails and treatment programs will

continue to house the drug's victims.

Narrator: Methamphetamine directly impacts the

brain's pleasure center, and there's one pleasure

that's heightened more intensely than any other:

sex.

The health impact on some communities is extreme.

San Francisco is a mecca for gay,

lesbian and bisexual people from around the

world.

In a community that has suffered the terrible

effects of HIV and AIDS, methamphetamine has taken

a strong hold, with dire consequences for those

fighting the HIV virus.

Since the mid '90s, 'Crystal' meth has become

the drug of choice in the gay club scene.

Aaron Schirmer took many drugs, including heroin,

before he discovered meth.

He was part of San Francisco's gay crystal

meth scene for 8 years.

Schirmer: Crystal Meth is very accessible.

You can walk down the street and find crystal

meth, you know, in most of the gay communities.

On the weekends it's really easy to find in

clubs.

You know, I used to go into bars and stand in the

rest room and be offered a line.

Narrator: Crystal meth gives users a rush of energy.

The cascade of dopamine entering the

brain and central nervous system also intensifies

feelings of sexual arousal.

Schirmer: Like an amazing euphoric rush.

Like you know, like I'm experiencing primal life,

you know, urges that I've always wanted to feel.

Narrator: Aaron, a photographer and club DJ,

has been HIV positive since he was 15.

For him, unsafe sex is usually fraught with the

danger of infecting someone.

But when he's injecting, or "slamming"

methamphetamine, sex suddenly becomes

uninhibited and guilt-free.

Schirmer: It's like this kind of sex that you would

have pre HIV you know, it's like where you could

just take all of your clothes off,

be totally naked and be raw with someone.

Losing all of your inhibitions like that

feels really amazing,

Narrator: Many HIV positive men in the city end up

having unprotected sex with one other.

Schirmer: You know, there's a population of

people who shoot crystal meth,

or who use crystal meth who are all HIV.

And so that sex pool, that pool of people you know,

can all have sex with each other and not worry about

transmission to one another,

which is in some ways has been like kind of a

beautiful part of it, of, of the crystal meth scene.

Narrator: Crystal Meth soon becomes more than

just a club drug.

Homosexual Meth users turn to internet dating sites

to hook up, and the search term 'Party and Play' or

'PnP' becomes code for drug-fuelled sex.

Seiver: If you put PnP people,

instantly know that you're interested in doing

crystal meth and having sex.

You know, it's kind of like the fast food version

of, of sex and drugs is, you know,

and you get online and you can have someone,

at your door within minutes with drugs and

ready to have sex with you.

Narrator: For those high on drugs,

practicing safe sex is often forgotten in the

haze.

Seiver: You can get high on crystal meth and party

all night long.

And Partying all night long can mean having sex

with lots of guys all night long,

even days on end, because the drug keeps you high

for that long, and unfortunately what often

happens is that using any kind of protection goes

out the window.

Narrator: When HIV negative men join in,

the crystal meth craze becomes even more deadly.

Schirmer: You have the people who are newly

coming into the crystal meth scene who lose all

their inhibitions and are HIV negative who are

really vulnerable, and especially when you have

like, you know, HIV areas and non HIV areas all

shooting up and all losing their inhibitions at once.

Narrator: Of the 28,000 cases of AIDS diagnosed in

San Francisco through 2008,

three quarters were among men who have sex with

other men.

Within this community, crystal meth is now a

major driver for new HIV infection.

Seiver: Gay men who use methamphetamine are three

to four times more likely to have HIV than the gay

men who don't.

It's really a significant part of why HIV infections

continue to occur.

Narrator: Despite the risk,

the pleasures that come with crystal make it

extremely hard to give up.

Schirmer: It was the most psychologically addictive

drug I've ever taken in my life,

and to this day getting off crystal meth,

I think is a lot harder than getting off heroin.

Narrator: The overall cost of methamphetamine to the

United States is estimated at $23 billion a year,

but the human cost of the ruined relationships,

careers, and health of addicts,

is impossible to quantify.

Even so, $35 billion worth of profits from producing

and distributing meth continue to pour into

Drugs Incorporated.