Methamphetamine Use Picking Up Speed in West, Officers Say : Drugs: A home-brew concoction, also known as crank, is becoming the cocaine of the ‘90s, according to police. With roots in California, it has spread into Oregon, Washington and Arizona.

For the longest time, Gary Burton’s family looked just about ideal. Burton’s journal charted the daily events of a proud family man: “Suzy’s baseball team won district. . . . Shelly won cheerleader. Those Burton girls are the best. . . . Gave Clint my favorite T-shirt today for his first football jersey.”

Clinton Burton was in middle school when his father brought something new into the family home in the rural southern Oregon town of Eagle Point.

Methamphetamine changed everything.

“The diary entries cut off when he started using meth. He didn’t keep a diary after that point,” said attorney Charles Kochlacs.

Methamphetamine, a home-brew concoction known as crank or speed among users, is becoming the drug of choice in much of the West.

With roots in California, the drug has quickly spread into Oregon, Washington and Arizona, said John Coonce, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s supervisory special agent.

Police report increased methamphetamine use in groups ranging from curious teen-agers and weight-conscious housewives to hardened addicts, said Steve Evans, state coordinator for the Western States Information Network, which collects law enforcement data.

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Meth is a mix of ephedrine, a naturally occurring drug used to treat asthma and stuffy noses, with other chemicals readily available in gasoline, rubbing alcohol, pool-cleaning supplies or drain cleaners.

It can be snorted, smoked or injected.

Coonce said it is to the ‘90s what cocaine was to the ‘80s. But meth is cheaper than cocaine, more readily available and longer-lasting.

“With meth, you’re more awake than with cocaine,” said one 37-year-old user in San Diego. He’s the father of a teen-age girl and used to manage a restaurant. “Cocaine--it gives you a little rush and then you go down. But with this, you stay the same. You can stay awake for days and days.”

The drug’s euphoric high is followed by deep depression and paranoia. Long-term users often fly into violent rages.

“The people, by the time we get to them, are usually in the criminal justice system or on welfare. They don’t stay employed long once they get hooked on that stuff,” said Linn County sheriff’s detective Scott Barnes, a member of the Valley Interagency Narcotics Team in Albany, Ore. “Basically, it’s a poor man’s cocaine.”

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Gary Burton started buying large quantities of methamphetamine in 1989, by Kochlacs’ account--for his own use and to sell to others.

His wife, Regina, began using it, and 13-year-old Clinton was pressured to take it so he could work long hours in his father’s auto repair shop.

As Burton demanded his son work harder and harder, arguments erupted every day. Eventually, the parents simply refused to drive the boy to the bus stop seven miles away, insisting Clint work in the shop rather than attend school. He had no other way to Eagle Point High.

“He was trapped on the property. He was left alone to deal with his father’s ranting, raving and abuse,” Kochlacs said. “It was an atmosphere of terror. His dad was completely unpredictable, violently angry.

“The mother would leave, sometimes hiding in the fields, and Clint would be the one there dealing with the father.”

With older sisters Suzanne, 24, and Shelly, 20, already out of the nest, Clint decided he had to escape.

The Navy offered a way out, and he stopped using meth in order to pass a drug test. He planned to sign up when he turned 18; his birthday, last Oct. 8, was approaching.

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Then, on the evening of Sept. 27, a fight escalated to the point that Regina Burton fled. As she drove away, she heard a gunshot.

Gary and Clint were shouting from separate rooms when the boy fired a .22-caliber pistol through a closed bedroom door.

She rushed back and found Clint desperately trying to save his 44-year-old father. Burton died before medics could reach the home.

Clint is now serving a three-month jail sentence in a residential drug treatment center concurrent with a yearlong stay there.

That will be followed by five years’ probation. He declined to be interviewed.

“Clinton basically became an addict at his father’s direction,” said Kochlacs, a public defender who represented Clinton at trial.

“Methamphetamine led to the demise of the family,” said sheriff’s Lt. Ed Mayer, commander of the Jackson County Narcotics Enforcement Team. “That family started out as a very typical family with strong family values. Meth led to the eventual tragic results of what occurred.”

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Jackson County, straddling Interstate 5--a major north-south West Coast artery--has become a distribution hub for methamphetamine flowing north from California, Mayer said.

The county’s drug team spends two-thirds of its time on methamphetamine cases.

In 1991, law officers filed 81 charges of meth possession, distribution or manufacture.

The number jumped to 177 in 1992 and 343 in 1993. Last year, it was 812. County investigators who saw 6 ounces of the drug in 1991 seized more than 10 pounds in 1994.

Farther up Interstate 5, Salem police seized 27 pounds of methamphetamine from January through April 30.

About 12 pounds were taken in all of 1994; in each of the previous three years, levels were below 5 pounds.

In contrast, cocaine seizures dropped from 46 pounds in 1991 to 7 pounds last year.

“We’re talking major increases,” said police Cpl. Tim Diede, a member of the Salem Area Interagency Narcotics Team.

“In the eight years I’ve worked narcotics, I’ve seen more in the last year than in the past seven years.”

West Coast drug enforcement authorities attribute the dramatic rise in the methamphetamine trade to traffickers with ties to Mexico, where the drug’s key ingredients are imported without record-keeping.

And, of course, the drug can be made at home--no borders to risk, no Colombians to split the profits.

“The profit is tremendous,” Coonce said.

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“Out in California, you can buy a pound for $4,000 to $6,000 and sell it back East for $17,000 to $24,000--all for about $1,000 worth of chemicals.”

Kochlacs said he’s representing an increasing number of clients charged in methamphetamine cases.

“I think people just can’t come to grips with the fact that it’s an epidemic,” he said, “. . . an epidemic that’s not going to be easily resolved.”