Methamphetamine has been dubbed the

Meth in Our Midst

Methamphetamine has been dubbed the ``white trash drug," and yet its rampant spread across Oklahoma has heeded no social boundaries, no racial stereotypes. In the past decade, the number of meth making operations seized in Oklahoma has risen dramatically from zero to more than 1,200.

Every day, someone in Oklahoma is dealing with meth's legacy, whether a farmer trying to keep thieves from fertilizer used in meth's manufacture or addicts trying to break a habit that could send them to prison.

In a series entitled ``Meth in Our Midst," released in early September, The Associated Press looked at methamphetamine's spread and what it means for the people using it, the law officers trying to slow it, the children living in the midst of it and the state's efforts to bring a halt to it.

Here is the rundown of stories. Click on each title to see the story.

Day One

Mainbar: BC-OK—Meth in Our Midst-Day
Every day, someone in Oklahoma deals with the problems of methamphetamine, whether they are lawmen on the beat or users trying to beat an addiction. The Associated Press, with the help of its member newspapers and broadcasters, wanted to show the drug's presence in the state during a randomly selected 24-hour period. On July 24, this is what happened:

Sidebar _ BC-OK—Meth in Our Midst
UNDATED _ They call it "crank," "go fast," "speed" _ fitting words for a drug that has ripped across Oklahoma like a spring twister, tearing up families, destroying lives. Former Gov. Frank Keating once called methamphetamine "a white trash drug." But in the past decade, meth has come to travel the social ladder, mix among the races, span the ages and spread right in our midst. "It's everywhere," says Rob Wallace, district attorney for LeFlore and Latimer counties, "among everyone."

Day Two

Mainbar _ BC-OK—Meth-Farmers
RED ROCK, Okla. _ Gary Williams awoke one morning to find a white fog hovering in the shallow valleys of his wheat farm, a middle-of-nowhere expanse bordered by Noble County's dusty back roads. Methamphetamine crooks had crept into his pasture of cattle and buffalo in the middle of the night to steal from a 38-ton tank of anhydrous ammonia. The thieves, craving the liquid fertilizer to cook a batch of meth, hadn't bothered to shut the tank's valve. About $4,500 worth of ammonia vaporized as it hissed out of the tank, drifting across the pasture toward the home of Williams' grandparents.

Sidebar _ BC-OK—Meth-Science
UNDATED _ It's not just the high that makes methamphetamine popular. The drug is also relatively quick, cheap and easy to make with ingredients that are readily available in stores. With about $100, a good recipe and four hours of spare time, an addict can make half-an-ounce of the off-white powder _ enough to get three or four people high for a long weekend.

Day Three

Mainbar _ BC-OK—Meth-Tiny Victims
TULSA, Okla. _ The dirty faces and filthy clothes belong to abandoned rag dolls, but the children Danielle Bishop finds living where meth is made cry real tears. They come from homes where what's cooking in the kitchen can kill them. Their sippy cups sometimes share a refrigerator shelf with toxic chemicals. Their tiny bodies reveal what their parents may deny _ exposure to methamphetamine often as homemade as mom's apple pie.

Sidebar BC-OK—Meth-Homeowners
OKLAHOMA CITY _ Home buyers will soon be protected from unknowingly living where methamphetamine has been made, meaning owners may foot hefty bills for removing the drug's hazards. A new law that takes effect Nov. 1 requires homeowners to disclose if the drug has been made on their property before they can sell it.

Day Four

Mainbar _ BC-OK—Meth-Women
HARRAH, Okla. _ Vicki Gantt doesn't tell her 8-year-old why she's in prison. She only tells him that she made a bad choice. For a while, she pushed aside the urge to buy a few grams of methamphetamine, inject it and let the high consume her. But in the end, she chose meth.

Sidebar _ BC-OK—Meth-Rehab
ALVA, Okla. _ The biggest test of Toby Evans' life comes down to a single question: Can he stay away from methamphetamine? For five years the answer was a resounding "no."

Day Five

Mainbar _ BC-OK—Meth-Violence
HOMINY, Okla. _ A year-and-a-half after high school graduation, Jeremy Call walked into a convenience store with a gun and told the clerk to give him money or he would shoot. The next day, he did it again. Robbery hadn't exactly figured into the plans of this nice kid from a good family in the small town of Panama, but then neither had the methamphetamine that drove him to it.

Sidebar _ BC-OK—Meth-History
UNDATED _ The origin of methamphetamine may go back thousands of years, but a recent evolution of the drug has contributed to its spread in Oklahoma. The development of amphetamine, followed by the manmade version known as methamphetamine, may have begun in China with the ephedra plant, said Dr. John Duncan, a chemist with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics.

Day Six

Mainbar _ BC-OK—Meth-Drug Courts
OKLAHOMA CITY _ Judge Charles Hill's small courtroom fills up quickly as people assigned to drug court file in and greet each other like old classmates at a reunion. For some, it's graduation day. They've tested negative for drugs for months and are ready to advance to the program's next phase, to aftercare where they mentor others or have the charges against them dismissed. For others, it's judgment day.

Sidebar _ BC-OK—Meth-Laws
OKLAHOMA CITY _ For over a decade, Oklahoma lawmakers have tried to fight meth manufacturing, only to see a surge in makeshift labs jam the radar of law enforcement and fill up prisons. Many of the laws passed have tried to limit products used to make methamphetamine. Others targeted users, manufacturers and distributors. Still, the problem has mushroomed.