Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Mason checks out a pseudoephedrine solution at a suspected methamphetamine lab in a vacant lot near Rough and Ready Highway last month. (Photo by John Hart)

The night of Feb. 22, according to the Nevada County Narcotics Task Force:

Fumes rise from vents outside an Alta Sierra home. A narcotics officer pounds on the door... waits... pounds again... rings doorbell... waits.

Lights and music inside.

"Sheriff's Department, search warrant, open the door immediately!" No reply. Just scampering feet.

The agent breaks in. Others join.

They find Joseph Beede, 22, sitting on a living room couch. He gets handcuffed and turned face down on the floor. His friend, Jonathan McCort, 29, huddles in a hall closet, naked. Agents cuff him also, take note of his iodine-stained hands, and place him alongside Beede.

Agents next follow the fumes to the basement. Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Mason opens the door to a haze and heavy chemical odor. "I had a headache," he says weeks later.

Mason quickly exits, puts on a breathing mask, and returns long enough to find what he suspects.

The Norlene Way house is deemed a methamphetamine lab, and the suspects go on to cooperate.

"Your timing couldnıt be any better," McCort tells the agents, explaining how he and Beede just finished cooking a half-ounce of methamphetamine before getting rid of the byproducts in a toilet and kitchen sink. He had planned to shower off remnant chemicals when agents arrived.

Eighty-two days later, Beede praises the agents' timing. He's in the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility visiting area. A needed 20 pounds has been added to his 5-foot-6-inch frame, and heıs content with incarceration. Itıs the longest heıs been clean since age 17.

His first three to four days behind bars were spent sleeping, a common physical reaction for inmates coming off a binge. Now he looks forward to resolving his court case, serving his time and getting treatment. He also wants to work again and see his young daughter, whose photo he flashes from behind a thick pane of glass.

"I'm happy with getting busted," he says. "That was it ‹ just put a stop to it. It spreads a lot of evil, too, that drug."

Less than $70 can buy ingredients to make a half-ounce of methamphetamine. Depending on how it's processed and packaged, it can fetch $250 or more.

That's rough street value for the illegal stimulant.

Street reality is that much of Nevada County's meth is cooked for personal use and a lot gets bartered. One woman said she provided child care and home-cooked meals for the drug.

Said drug counselor Kristina Perales: "Meth is so cheap. I had one client say itıs easier to get meth than a quart of milk for her kids. People give it away."

But costs to the county's social fabric are exponential, and officials say ripples have become waves since it first reached the county more than 20 years ago.

Strung-out families disintegrate under the drug, and law enforcement, mental health and social services budgets stretch from busting, jailing and treating users.

"I've been taking away children from moms I knew as children," said Sandy Boyd of Child Protective Services. "They remember me as a social worker when I took them."

Epidemic might not be the word, but the problem is worsening, she said. During a two-week stretch in April, CPS workers averaged an out-of-home placement a day because of meth arrests.

"For some reason, April's been really bad," Boyd said at the time. "I donıt know."

Probation Officer Mike Sypnicki has entered homes where 8-year-olds tried to care for younger siblings as their parents slid into the drug's do-nothing stage.

Filthy homes, trashy yards and children in day-old diapers are common sights.

Alcohol and marijuana abuse are more prevalent, Sypnicki said, "but I think the meth poses far more danger to the user and the others around him.

"It has a much more negative effect. Everything about it is negative. Meth will tear a family apart. It will destroy lives unlike any drug weıve seen."

Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital often sees meth-abusing patients hurt in power tool accidents or other such mishaps, according to Dr. Darren Phelan, emergency department medical director .

Direct meth-related problems - overdose, withdrawal panic attacks and fast heart rates ‹ account for about five visits some months. Phelan's most serious meth case occurred in 1997. "I have seen someone who had a bleeding stroke in their brain and died," he said.

For the cold economic impact, take the Norlene Way case.

Two Environmental Health workers responded after-hours and tagged the house an "unsafe dwelling."

Nevada County Consolidated firefighters were dispatched - just in case the suspected meth chemicals caused a reaction. Lab explosions arenıt uncommon.

"So, there's two fire engines committed for hours," Consolidated Chief Tim Fike said.

After firefighters vented the house, state Department of Justice agents arrived just after midnight to document evidence and examine the scene for fingerprints.

Meanwhile, from concerns about septic system contamination, a lengthy environmental assessment process began.

A private firm could charge as much as $4,000 for an assessment. That doesnıt begin to pay for cleanup, if one is needed, according to Tom Holdrege of Holdrege & Kull Consulting Engineers and Geologists, which bid on the project.

Whoever gets the job must take samples from the septic tank, compare contaminant levels to state standards and draft a cleanup plan.

"You're introducing chemicals to the soil," Holdredge said, speaking generally. "The solvents are the nasty things that can actually cause health problems and such - and water contamination, if it got to that point."

At Norlene Way, McCortıs father has signed on to pay for the assessment, according to Environmental Health.

In many cases, though, property owners are left with the bill. Mason has seen labs at rentals and vacant summer homes. The meth gets cooked, and the house gets trashed and abandoned.

"If you own a rental, be very careful of who you rent to. And check up on them," he said.

Meanwhile, Beede and McCort remain jailed at a cost of $91 a day. Beede's court-appointed lawyer is paid $60 an hour at public expense, and McCort has a public defender.

If convicted, the men could get more time behind bars.

Then comes treatment, often publicly subsidized, and numerous follow-up meetings with probation officers.

The entire outcome will have been sculpted by a judge, prosecutor, defense lawyer and probation officer.

All that for one case. Except this one posed countless more. Agents at the house reported finding a notebook with numerous names and dollar figures ‹ suspected buyers and the amounts they paid or owed.

It's hard to say what fraction of western Nevada County's meth-using culture they represent. Out of 299 receiving treatment through the Department of Behavioral Health Services, 99 listed meth as their primary drug of addiction. Another 30 called it their second or third drug of choice.

What's left are perceptions of magnitude.

"When I was on it, I thought everyone was on it," Beede said. "When I got off it, I thought there werenıt as many as you would think. But nowadays, there's a lot of young people hooked."

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