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A soldier stands in what was identified as "metal reactors" after a seizure of a large clandestine methamphetamine lab at a ranch in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico. U.S. authorities, including those in Alabama, claim that meth in its purest form -- called "ice" -- is being imported at alarming levels. (AP Photo)

As Derrick Dearman was led by corrections officers to the Mobile County Metro Jail this week, he turned to the TV cameras and told the public "don't do drugs" and admitted to being high on methamphetamine when he murdered five adults near Citronelle.

Dearman's admission has shined a new light on a drug that, in the past five years, has faded from the public eye somewhat as makeshift meth labs produced in rural houses and mobile home parks have dwindled. Much of the decline has been related to a state law that clamped down on the purchases of cold medicines used to make the drug.

At the same time, other drugs - namely, heroin and a synthetic form of marijuana called "spice" - have grabbed media headlines.

But for law enforcement, methamphetamine continues to create headaches and worries as a more pure form of street drug called "ice" - resembling rock candy or a chip of ice -- is transported by Mexican cartels into the United States and distributed to addicts who no longer are able to make the homegrown product.

"When the labs went away, you lose the affect they had on the environment but the addict still wants meth and prefers it and will look for it somewhere," said Barry Matson, chairman of the Alabama Drug Abuse Task Force and deputy director of the Office of Prosecution Services with the Alabama District Attorney's Association. "That void was filled with illegally imported methamphetamine."

Drug Enforcement Administration statistics show that methamphetamine is the No. 1 drug that contributes to property crimes in the Southeast, slightly ahead of heroin.

Meth and violence

And when it comes to violent crimes, according to the National Drug Threat Survey produced by the DEA, methamphetamine far exceeds other illegal drugs.

"I would say that the majority of folks who use meth long-term, are more pre-disposed to violence than any other drug - cocaine, heroin or anything like that," said Jennifer Kenney, assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. "The folks who use meth have more likely to have a violent history and have experienced violence in their past."

Methamphetamine is considered among the most potent of stimulant drugs illegally used in the U.S.

Often compared to cocaine, another stimulant, methamphetamine is different in that it produces a stronger and longer-lasting high. Studies have shown that smoking meth can produce a high that lasts six to 24 hours, while smoking cocaine produce a high lasting 20 to 30 minutes. It also takes a longer period of time for the body to rid itself of methamphetamine.

"Basically, when someone smokes meth for the first time, they feel an intense euphoria of invincibility and so forth," said Kenney. "After that, the person who is smoking meth or injecting it, can really never reach that same level of euphoria again. I've heard it called 'chasing the ghost.' The more and more you use, you're still chasing that initial feeling."

And meth, if used over a period of time, will alter emotions such as anger and paranoia.

Kenney added, "Especially with meth, for folks who use over a long-time and in high doses, it causes a lot of paranoia and a lot of hallucinations ... the violence really stems from that paranoia."

Meth-related violence can generate headlines that send shivers through a community. Often the crimes, considered as senseless, can be a bit more understandable when the user admits to using meth.

But that doesn't make the criminal any less guilty.

"I've studied drug courts across the country and I've never seen someone say that folks are using meth are less likely to get a harsher sentence," said Kenney. "It comes down to the crime."

Dearman is accused of murdering five adults, one of whom was five-months pregnant, inside a rural home west of Citronelle during the early morning hours on Aug. 20.

According to authorities, he entered the house with an ax and used it to massacre his victims before shooting them with a gun. He was reportedly enraged at his estranged girlfriend, Laneta Lester, and kidnapped her and a baby before driving toward Mississippi in search of more drugs.

Dearman is charged with six counts of capital murder and two counts of felony kidnapping. He is set to be arraigned on Wednesday at the Mobile County Circuit Courthouse.

Citronelle murder 16 Gallery: Citronelle murder

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich, who is prosecuting the Dearman case, said that the drug is no excuse for criminal culpability.

"We wouldn't excuse their behavior because they were under the influence of a drug, and the law is clear in that regard," Rich said.

Matson said he's not aware of any situation in which someone took meth and went out and killed someone because of the drug.

"They might have been high and committed a robbery and there was a homicide, but I've not seen it before," said Matson. "Usually what drugs do, the stimulants just accentuate who you are. If you want to fight and take a stimulant, you'll want to fight more."

Mexican imports

Matson's biggest concern is the increase in smuggling. The drug has seen a seven-fold increase in volume imported from Mexico to the United States between 2008 and 2014, according to Southwest Border seizures of meth compiled in a White House report on national drug control.

The report also indicates that meth prices per pure gram have decreased more than 70 percent during that time, while the purity of the drug increases. According to the White House report, the DEA is working with Mexican law enforcement to better identify and destroy so-called super labs and disrupt organizations producing and trafficking the drug.

Matson said the rise of the imported drug into Alabama coincided with the legislative crackdown, in 2012, of availability to the cold medicine precursors that go into manufacturing the drug.

That law prevents cold and allergy medicine with ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from being sold in stores other than pharmacies. In 2010, the Alabama Legislature established a National Precursor Log Exchange to help police officers track suspicious sales of decongestant pseudoephedrine, which meth makers sometimes use to manufacture the illegal street drug.

The computerized database also cracks down on so-called "smurfing," which is the practice of drug distributors hiring people to buy cold medicine in order to exceed legal purchase limits. Alabama law prohibits the sale of pseudoephedrine per person per month to 7.5 games; federal limits are 9 grams.

"It was model legislation for the country," said Blaine Galliher, a former state representative from Gadsden who sponsored the legislation at the time. "It reduced the diversion of pseudoephedrine tremendously. It reduced the amount of meth labs tremendously."

Drug Enforcement Administration statistics show the number of meth labs dropping nationwide from 15,220 in 2010 to 9,338 in 2014. Alabama saw a considerable drop, from 913 labs in 2010 to just 112 in 2014.

The decline was also noticeable in Jackson County, near the Tennessee border. The county has been considered as the top meth-producing county in Alabama.

"Our problems started in 1997-98 with the meth labs and continued to grow in the mid-2000s," said Jackson County Sheriff Chuck Phillips. "It's down to almost nothing now."

He added, "We find a lab every now and then, but it's nothing like it used to be."

Instead, Phillips said his deputies are arresting people who receive the highly-addictive meth smuggled from Mexico.

"I think addiction and drugs are the biggest threat to this state," said Matson. "We talk about whether it's storms or tornadoes or terrorism but the thing that kills more people and invades our state every day is heroin and methamphetamine and cocaine. It destroys our communities."