On the rise

If your neighbor stays up all hours of the night and asks you to buy cold medicine for them, they might be cooking methamphetamines in their kitchen, authorities said.

Onslow County Sheriff’s Capt. Jon Lewis and detective Joseph Karaszewski have been trained to notice suspicious behavior and look for the meth labs that authorities say have mushroomed in the Onslow County area in the last few years.

Often the activities of people cooking meth become so obvious that anyone can spot them, detectives said.

“People who cook meth are always inside, mixing their drugs,” Karaszewski said. “They keep strange hours and are wired all the time.”

Jacksonville police Capt. Billy Houston said meth manufacturers “often use motel rooms or rented apartments” because of the strong odors that permeate carpet, walls and furniture.

On Monday, Sheriff’s detectives charged Jeremy Shamel Pickett, 27, of Hallsville Road in Beulaville, with manufacturing methamphetamines at a hotel in Richlands on Friday.

Two others were arrested at the hotel when officers with the Narcotics Unit raided their room at Keene’s Motor Lodge. Allen Lee Runyon, Jr., 25, of Frank Swinson Lane in Richlands, and Racheal Ann Lewis Waid, 27, of Blue Creek Road, are accused of manufacturing meth at the hotel.

Waid was recently arrested in Jones County on similar charges. Ashley Hinson, an Onslow County man arrested at the same time as Waid in Jones County, was charged in August with hiding a mobile meth lab in a barbecue grill in front of his mother’s house in Midway Park.

Meth is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system creating a heightened since of awareness, abundance of energy and sense of euphoria. Its side effects include increased pulse and blood pressure, insomnia and possible stroke, according to information from the N.C. Department of Public Safety.

Lewis said there was a slight drop in locals manufacturing meth a few years ago when North Carolina passed laws limiting the sale of over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine — one of the ingredients in meth. Then the Mexican drug cartels jumped into the game and began exporting large amounts of meth into the U.S. But when Mexican officials began to crack down on pseudoephedrine sales, it became cheaper to make it than buy it again.

Meth dealers used to be able to make enough for themselves and extra to sell, but with all the restrictions on over-the-counter medicine now, addicts are being forced to make their own, Lewis said.

“Meth cooks are telling customers, ‘I don’t want your money, bring me pills to cook the dope,’” he said.

And that is one of the main reasons meth labs are noticeable.

Karaszewski said an abundance of empty cold medicine boxes in the trash and propane tanks being brought inside a home are dead giveaways that meth is being made.

Strong chemical odors are another indicator, Lewis said.

It is also those chemicals that are killing users, chemicals like lithium and sulfuric acid.

“The chemicals used to mix meth slowly eat away at the body,” Lewis said. “People who use meth are awake for two or three days at a time. So not only are they poisoning themselves, they are not getting the rest and nutrition they need.”

He said 10 years of smoking meth can age a person 30 years.

JPD detective Trudy Allen, a certified drug recognition expert, said meth is extremely addictive and can result in “meth mouth,” a condition in which addicts lose their teeth at an abnormally fast rate.

Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog here.