Meth proves round

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control reports the following number of clandestine methamphetamine lab seizures in Oklahoma over the past decade:
   1992 _ 0
   1993 _ 0
   1994 _ 10
   1995 _ 34
   1996 _ 125
   1997 _ 241
   1998 _ 275
   1999 _ 781
   2000 _ 946
   2001 _ 1,193
   2002 _ 1,254

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:

12:06 a.m. _ LeFlore County Deputy Sheriff Justin Phillips is on a manhunt, responding to a possible sighting of a man wanted for allegedly operating a large meth lab in the back of a pickup truck. Hours earlier, two men led deputies on a chase before crashing the truck near Panama and fleeing. Search dogs tracked them for miles in far eastern Oklahoma before losing the trail.

2:30 a.m. _ An eight-hour shift driving the backroads of Ottawa County in search of drug activity and tracking down informants comes to an end for sheriff's Lt. Scott Graham. This was a quiet shift, but that's not always the case. The three-man narcotics unit he supervises has seized 15 methamphetamine labs this year and arrested more than 35 people.

3 a.m. _ In the early morning darkness, the special operations unit of the Caddo County Sheriff's Office conducts surveillance on an anhydrous ammonia storage site. They'll be here for six hours. Farmers use anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer, but thieves often steal it to make meth.

8:40 a.m. _ In what has become a daily ritual, a woman and her two young sons stand outside the county jail in Miami, hoping to catch a glimpse of inmate Richard O'Hara through a pair of slim windows. O'Hara, who is accused among other things of attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, works in the prison laundry. "He'll be here soon," Teresa O'Hara tells her boys, wrapping her slender arms around them and turning their heads so she can look into their eyes. "Your daddy will be here soon." She was arrested along with her husband and also faces trial this fall.

9:00 a.m. _ Bartlesville police and a special task force use a battering ram to enter a house where 6 grams of suspected methamphetamine are found. Two people are arrested. At the same time in Poteau, a jury hears testimony in the trial of 59-year-old James Preston Ray Sr. Ray was serving a 10-year suspended sentence for meth possession when his parole officer allegedly found a meth lab in the bedroom of his home.

9:30 a.m. _ James Dillon, 31, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, sits handcuffed to a dozen other men in a Tulsa County courtroom. When it's his turn, he pleads guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine and injuring a minor child. He receives seven years in prison for his first meth conviction. His girlfriend, Michelle Ashlock, also is there but must await sentencing on the same charges. Her 10-year-old son was in the house where meth cooking was taking place. The boy tested positive for the drug.

10 a.m _ A Carter County task force, acting on a tip, finds suspected methamphetamine in the home of a young couple. Agents say two small children, including an infant, were living in the house. The parents are arrested. The children go to live with a relative.

Noon - On death row of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, inmate Harold Loyd McElmurry II is served a lunch of beans, greens, cabbage and cornbread. McElmurry told police he and his wife were high on methamphetamine when they killed an elderly Lenna couple in 1999. This is his last Thursday to live. His execution takes place July 29.

2 p.m. _ The office of U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., prepares a news release about new funding for meth enforcement. "We've got to meet this crisis head-on," Lucas says. "Our local police departments and sheriffs' offices are on the front lines of this war."

3:30 p.m. _ Back in LeFlore County, Deputy Phillips visits a home near Panama where a tipster says he might find one of the suspects from the previous day's pursuit. He doesn't find the suspect _ just another suspected meth lab. Two people are taken away in handcuffs.

And in a Tulsa courtroom, Kevin Lee Weber is sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking meth via express delivery. A police dog had alerted on a package sent by Federal Express and addressed to Weber's Tulsa apartment. A search turned up 4.5 ounces of meth inside.

3:40 p.m. _ McCurtain County law officers descend on a Broken Bow home after an undercover agent speaks to a suspected meth dealer. They seize glassware and chemicals and arrest a man and a woman. It's their 31st such seizure this year. "We're probably more aggressive than we've ever been," Sheriff Mike Willaby says, "and trained to know what we're looking for."

4 p.m. _ Returning to work in Ottawa County, Graham arrives at his office and immediately picks up the phone to call a drug informant. "What have got for me today?" Graham asks. "I need some help. That can you do for me?"

4:30 p.m. _ The Poteau jury convicts James Preston Ray Sr. on meth charges. At the same time, nearly 200 miles away, a special operations team in Norman is called out. A man has discovered trash from a suspected meth lab on his property. Officers clean up empty bottles of a gas additive called Heet, camp fuel and lithium battery casings. Moments later, 20 yards away, they find another pile of suspected meth debris.

7 p.m. _ In Perry, a group of young women gather around Gloria Brown for a weekly Bible study. They look older than they are, aged by the drug addictions they are trying to beat through a faith-based program called Overcoming Through the Crisis. One woman tells the group she's worried because the boyfriend with whom she used to sell and do drugs is coming home for the weekend. "I don't want to go back to my old lifestyle," she says. "I don't want to be tempted to do something wrong. But I'm afraid of being alone. I'm so much older than him and now that he's thinking straight, I might not be appealing to him." Brown recalls her own daughter's journey _ a 20-year drug addiction that brought lost jobs, rehab after failed rehab, five children with five different dads, a family ripped apart and ultimately, jail. A faith-based program eventually helped her daughter beat that addiction.

7:10 p.m. - A 20-year-old recovering addict in Shawnee finishes eating a dinner of pizza. This day, the meth craving isn't there, but it can hit when she least expects it. Sometimes she can taste and smell the drug, even if it's nowhere around.

10:30 p.m. _ Cruising along a state highway in Stephens County, Deputy John Guthrie pulls over a pickup truck driving with its license plate light out. When the driver rolls down the window, Guthrie smells the telltale odor of ether, which is used in meth making. He contacts a drug team, which arrives with a drug-sniffing dog. They find suspected meth in a passenger's purse and in a tissue in the passenger door. A man and woman are taken into custody.

10:50 p.m. - Drug agents arrest a man for allegedly trying to sell fake "ice" or smokeable meth on the streets of Shawnee.

11:15 p.m. - Drug agents and Shawnee police stop two men walking on the city's south side. They find smokeable meth, along with PCP, on the ground and believe the suspects dropped the items. They can't prove it, though. Both men have outstanding drug warrants so they're taken to jail anyway.

Contributing to this report: Anadarko Daily News, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Daily Ardmoreite, The Duncan Banner, KOTV-Channel 6, McAlester News-Capital & Democrat, Miami News-Record, Norman Transcript, Perry Daily Journal, Poteau Daily News, Shawnee News-Star, Tulsa World.

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Meth proves round-the-clock trouble in Oklahoma