Meth, crime go hand in hand, officials say

Jeremy Call is pictured in the R.B. "Dick" Conner Correctional Center in Hominy, Okla., July 17, 2003, where the 20-year-old is serving 10 years for robbery. A year-and-a-half after high school graduation, looking for money to support his methamphetamine habit, Call walked into a convenience store with a gun and told the clerk to give him money or he would shoot. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

By Jessica L. Dickerson

HOMINY, Okla. (AP) _ A year-and-a-half after high school graduation, Jeremy Call walked into a convenience stoe 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.

"Every day, I look back," said the 20-year-old from the R.B. "Dick" Conner Correctional Center where he's serving 10 years for robbery. "It could've been any other way but this."

Methamphetamine may promise euphoric highs, but in many Oklahoma communities it is causing destructive lows _ thefts, robberies and even more violent acts.

An inmate who was put to death in July said he and his wife shot up on meth before murdering an elderly Lenna couple in 1999. That same year, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper was killed and his partner injured while trying to serve a search warrant for meth at a Sequoyah County home. A defense lawyer said in a trial last year a Tulsa man acted under meth's influence in the killing and dismemberment of his roommate.

Last year, more than 14 percent of men and nearly 18 percent of women arrested in Oklahoma County tested

positive for the drug, the National Institute of Justice found.

The numbers were even higher in Tulsa County, where more than 15 percent of men and nearly 27 percent of women arrested had the drug in their system, according to the institute's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program.

No one knows exactly how much crime is related to meth, a drug that can be made on a kitchen countertop with household products.

But in LeFlore and Latimer counties, where more than 40 meth labs were discovered last year, District Attorney Rob Wallace estimates 70 percent of all cases his office handles are somehow tied to the drug.

Former Gov. Frank Keating's assertion that meth is a "white-trash" drug, he said, "couldn't be further from the truth."

"We see children of very good families, the kind of families that are cornerstones of your community, who try this stuff and get hooked on it," Wallace said.

Two summers ago, Call had just graduated high school having tried nothing stronger than alcohol.

He had grown up with involved parents. He played high school football and considered almost everyone in his hometown a friend. He had made plans to help his father run a Tae Kwon Do business.

But in hanging out with new friends, he started experimenting with Ecstasy, LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Then one day, he tried meth.

He said he started using occasionally, mostly on weekends. But within three months, he was using meth every day, a habit that cost him as much as $600 a week.

One day he and some friends were high and out of money. One of them had a gun.

"We was broke," Call said. "It was the only way I knew we could go get some money."

He has trouble recalling exactly how it happened _ partly because of the drugs, he said, and partly because he doesn't want to remember. According to police, it was just before 1 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2002, when a man identified as Call entered a Poteau convenience store wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun.

He demanded money and told a store employee to hurry or he would shoot. The next night, he robbed a convenience store in his hometown.

Call said he also robbed a woman at her home in southern LeFlore County before being caught.

One charge was dropped at the request of one of the stores, andCall pleaded guilty to two other counts of armed robbery. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and another 10 years behind bars.

Meth and violence often go hand-and-hand, said Herman Jones, a neuropsychologist who teaches at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Meth users may stay intoxicated for three or four days straight, sometimes not sleeping at all, he said.

The lack of sleep may bring paranoia and hallucinations. Users may feel like things are crawling under their skin and sometimes scratch themselves until they bleed, Jones said.

The drug also can overwhelm a user's inhibitions, causing some to become enraged, aggressive or mean, he said. They may "go off" on a perceived threat, be it a person or inanimate object.

A strong desire for the drug, Jones said, may drive addicts to lie or steal to support their habit.

The victims of meth-related violence are often those closest to the users _ their spouses and children, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics.

Law officers are at risk, too, often finding meth users with guns or discovering booby traps at homes where meth-making is going on, he said. Users may pose a danger even to social workers, cable crews and meter readers.

The medium-security prison in Hominy is home to rapists and murderers and robbers. Call is one of the youngest inmates and his youthful looks, easygoing manner and half-smile seem to transcend his surroundings.

He has been treated for his addiction and has returned to making plans for his future. He wants to marry and have a family.

"I want to live for the right things," he said, "work for my own money."

Each day, he said, he lives with regret.

"I could've been hurt, people I pointed guns at could've been hurt," he said. "I wish I could take the fear I put on other people's shoulders, I wish I could take that away."