Coles County is the leading county in the state of Illinois for methamphetamine stops, busts and labs.

Of the entire state, Coles County makes up for 60 percent of all methamphetamine contacts, said Eric Davidson, director for health education and promotion.

“Arrests have gone up significantly,” said Master Sgt. Dave McLearin of the East Central Illinois Task Force.

The number of arrests related to methamphetamines have more than doubled in the last year, and 80 percent of all drug busts are related to methamphetamines, McLearin said.

The reason why Coles County has such a concentration of methamphetamine labs is closely related to its mostly rural population, McLearin said.

Most of the ingredients to make methamphetamines can be bought at hardware stores, except for anhydrous ammonia, which farmers use to fertilize their crops, McLearin said. People who manufacture the drug usually steal the anhydrous ammonia from farmer’s fields or fertilizer plants and make their product in abandoned shacks or in ditches out in the country.

Often, people making methamphetamines will drive a truck out into the country and park it, while they manufacture the drug in the bed of the truck, McLearin said.

Because of the relative availability of the ingredients to the drug as well as availability of information on how to make it, the manufacture of methamphetamines is becoming increasingly popular, he said.

“It is a drug that is easy to make and inexpensive to make,” McLearin said.

People often find recipes on how to make the drug online, or friends pass the information on to each other, he said.

To make one ounce of methamphetamines would cost someone less than $150; however, to buy one ounce from a dealer would cost approximately $1,500.

Police officers often discover labs on an unrelated call or stop. The drug is not a popular party drug, McLearin said. If a person is caught with a fairly large amount of methamphetamines, it is considered to be a class X felony, which carries a minimum penalty of six years in jail.

In an effort to combat the alarming number of labs found in Coles County each year, the East Central Illinois Task Force has begun an education program called Operation Crystal Clear to inform police officials as well as citizens, especially farmers, on how to spot a methamphetamine lab.

A house in which people are manufacturing methamphetamines may have a strange odor coming from it and a lot of late night activity and high traffic, McLearin said.

Task force members are telling farmers to immediately inform the police if they see any suspicious persons or vehicles in their fields or parked out in the country, McLearin said.

“With increased awareness and education, farmers are no longer leaving (anhydrous ammonia tanks) out in the fields,” McLearin said.

Sheriff Ron Scott said that although Coles County is a mainly rural area, one reason why the county has so many methamphetamine-related arrests is because of the methamphetamine education given to police officers and farmers.

“We have really good police work,” Scott said. “It helps to have the education in the drug field.”

Studies of statewide methamphetamine usage in past years have shown that the majority of users are not college students, Davidson said. Most methamphetamine users are of a lower socioeconomic background and are less educated than their peers.

The reason for this classification may be that methamphetamines take over peoples’ lives, and if users were in college, they would have to drop out, Davidson said.

Police officials have noticed a wide variety of people in different age groups becoming addicted to methamphetamines. Arrests are ranging from people who are still in high school to people in their 50s of both genders, McLearin said.

“If meth is a person’s drug of choice, the drug is their life,” Davidson said.

Methamphetamines can be smoked or snorted, but most addicts choose to inject the drug, known as mainlining, McLearin said.

“(Methamphetamines) are really, really addictive,” McLearin said.

Some of the short-term effects of methamphetamine usage, which can begin on the first usage, are heightened blood pressure, a false sense of well being, irritability, a reduced appetite, difficulty sleeping, paranoia, hallucinations and aggressive behavior.

The onset of more long-term effects of methamphetamine usage depends on the frequency of usage, the amount typically used and purity of the drug, Davidson said. The negative effects may begin within a few weeks.

The more severe effects of methamphetamine usage are malnutrition; insomnia; little care for self; low resistance to illness; severe weight loss and malfunctions of the liver, brain and heart.

When a person who is addicted to methamphetamines tries to kick the habit, the withdrawal symptoms also are severe. The addicts will first experience a severe crash even if they had only been using the drug recreationally, Davidson said.

Addicts going through withdrawal may experience schizophernia-like symptoms, paranoia, delusions, aggressive behavior and a fever up to 108 degrees.