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What is meth?
Methamphetamine -- meth -- is a powerful stimulant that experts say creates the same kind of high as cocaine but is easier to manufacture and cheaper to buy.

Who uses meth?
There are two basic profiles of users reported by law enforcement and treatment professionals: students, both high school and college age; and white, blue-collar workers and unemployed people in their 20s and 30s.

Quick facts
Following a northward route, meth's popularity has increased in Iowa and southeastern Minnesota in the past few years.

Meth timeline
Discovered in Japan in 1919, methamphetamine is more potent and easier to make than its predecessor, amphetamine.

Iowa meth lab seizures
In 2000, state and local law enforcement agencies in Iowa seized more than 650 clandestine methamphetamine laboratories.

Southeast Minnesota meth lab seizures
In the first four months of 2001, authorities seized eight meth labs in southeast Minnesota, which is twice the number for the same period a year ago.

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