Hes been under fire for excessive drinking and he admitdrug use. Hell go to court to get back more authority. Nasas mission to investigate the upper atmosphere on mars now underway, a robotic spacecraft called maven, is underway, how mars went from earth like to a barren desert. You can get the alatest on aljazeera. Com. Often america tonight a recipe for disaster. A crack down on meth in Rural America leads to a new problem. You know the mexicans are bringing it over by the truckloads. How one family is treating shakeandbake for mexican ice. Im winning, everybody is winning, all good. President aquino, face to face with the typhoon and america tonights joie chen. We would like to now are you pleased with the rescue effort . The cradle of civilization, the plan to rebuild the marshes of mesopotamia. Good evening everyone, thanks for joining us. Joie chen is on assignment im adam may. Meth amphetamine is continuing to ravage all across middle america. Every time Law Enforcement contraction down on meth production, it pops up in different form. Christophe putzel reports. Veronica has been addicted to meth amphetamine for more than a third of her life. Commonly referred to as speed, dope or ice, the drug is highly addictive and has been decimating Rural Communities like the one veronica has been living in for decades. They refer the to it as a walk away drug. You walk away from everything you ever valued for your next high. He says meth amphetamine after a dipping in consumption a few years ago due to drug enforcement, is at a new high. I dont know how something has had such a effect on someones quality of life as the use of meth amphetamine. I was 26 when i started using. And im 43 years old now. Thats how it goes around here, though. Five miles from here and five miles around you theres probably 100 or more. People selling dope. How badly has this community been touched by this . Theres more kids on it than ive ever seen in my life. Have your kids gotten into this meth . Two of my boys have. How old are they . 13 and maybe 14. Where are we right now . Walmart. And what are we doing here . Were going to get some supplies to make some dope. For years, this is how veronica had maintained her meth amphetamine habit. Purchasing kerosene, and other common items to produce what is called shakeandbake are. Rubber hose attached, in arkansas this is almost the only way exclusively they powder out meth amphetamine. The tulsa, Oklahoma Police department shows how shakeandbake is made. They also inadvertently reveal just how dangerous it can be. Probably about 40 of the time someones going to get badly injured. It looks really benign and its a small bottle and its got household chemicals. When they are mixed together in these ways, it becomes like a bomb. Shows just how volatile the toxic cocktail can be. Thousands of people are seriously burned every year trying to produce the drug for personal consumption. And because its often cooked in the home, even children are at risk. Have you seen these bottles before being shaken . And exploding. Youve seen that . Yeah. I seen dad, he shook it so much, shake them up and psssh. This sixyearold boy described a shakeandbake meth cook that got so bad, it caught his house on fire. You got burned . Yes. Was it that one . Yes. The burn mark. I just saw a big explosion. I just went psss. I saw the somehow explode. Why are people in your home making these shake up bottles . Yeah, why are they doing had a . They think its for fun. But its not so fun, is it . Huhuh. How many times have you gone and bought all the ingredients before . Oh lord, i cant count. I cant count that high. For addicts like veronica the dangers of shakeandbake meth production are nothing compared to the hold the drug has on their lives. Were heading to Walgreens Pharmacy so we can get some sudafed. On the effort to crack down on the shakeandbake method and the injuries resulting from it, legislatures of 40 of 50 states have targeted one of the key ingredients, the drug pseudoephedrine, contained in over the counter drugs like sudafed. Most laws require that sudafed be kept behind the desk at the pharmacy. Most pharmacies require that customers have a prescription history for that particular store before they will sell to them. Have to have a prescription here, okay. Most of these people are not chemists. If you dont have pseudoephedrine you cant make meth amphetamine. Limiting the cold mns have drastically reduced the sale of the drug. Were going oimprovise. I aint quitting. Unable to get her hands on sudafed for a shakeandbake Cook Veronica looks to her son teddy who has been using the drug since he was 14. Did you use your the drug from your mom . That was the first time i saw it. That really disturbed me. I lated it, i hated it. Why did you start using . That was weird. We were bad old country kids. It was the only fun we had. He prefers a new product a cheap version of the old drug in a shiny ready to use new package. That is what ice looks like. Awere there any unintended consequence on the crack downed of pseudoephedrine . The manufacturer is manufactured in mexico and smugd intsmuggled into the u. S. U. S. Got itself addicted by making this home grown product and now the cartel are supplying what the people are demanding . Correct. This is what the mexican cartels will do it to make it look really valuable. You can make it where its really pretty and almost seethrough crystals and people will pay money because they think it must be something special. This kind of meth amphetamine coming from mexico referred to as ice is more than 80 pure. More troubling for Law Enforcement its cheap and increasingly easy to get. Theres no reason to stay meth anymore. You dont feel like cook anymore . Why take the risk dining had you know the mexicans bringing it over by the truckloads. I can get way larger amounts, at dirtcheap price. And everybodys winning. Im winning, theyre winning. Its all good. Where everybodys happy. So is there more meth amphetamine now in rural areas than there used ton . Oh, yes. Really . Usually when you see meth amphetamine ice in arkansas nine times out of 10 its coming from mexico. We are seeing higher quality, 90 and up. Really, from the cartel . From the cartel. The cartel is producing high are potency methamphetamines . From the meth labs. Why is that important . Better product. The consumer likes better product. Thats america tonights christophe putzel. He is live. Christophe, its heartbreaking to see, a sixyearold talking about this as if its normal. Its got to be tearing families apart. Certainly is. Fortunately because theres been such a huge crack down on the safely pseudoephedrine, 40 states have restrict tetd sale one way or another. Theres a lot of the sale one way or the other. Hospitals were having to close down their burn units because they were getting such an influx of patients that didnt have insurance who were there as a result of shakeandbake or methcookless gone wrong. And cooks gone wrong. Thats a plus that its down but now you have all of this meth coming over the border, stronger more potent and abuse is stronger than its ever been. Ive heard reports of children with meth strapped to their back being asked to walk over the border just to get meth into the United States. This has got to be a huge problem. It is a huge problem. Any time you have a supply and demand product, meth is such an addictive drug, theyll find ways to get it in. Theyre getting much more creative and dismeeking it across sneaking it across the border. The fear is its not going to just be affecting the south, its going to creep through the north. Basically cut through country like a hot knife through butter. Christophe putzel, thank you. Ahead on america tonight, a very dangerous task in japan has begun. Removing radioactive fuel rods from the crippled fukushima plant. Why this could be the end in the nuclear nightmare. Underway here in cebu. We have a problem with no homes to go back to. Clean water, food, medicine, all vitally required. The Australian Medical Team arrived. This is a government warehouse that is preparing relief for the families most effected. Al Jazeera America is there with continuing live coverage. The water rose to halfway up to the second story. To find out how you can help, go to aljazeera. Com. Nearly three years ago a massive quake hit japan, the event set off a series of disasters, a massive tsunami and multinuclear melt downs. The Fukushima Nuclear power plant, decommissioning . How is that done . Very, very carefully. Four meter long tubes filled with uranium fuel first must be removed. The tubes could not be exposed to air, that could cause them to overheat and suddenly release deadly amounts of radiation. The crews have their work cut out for them. There are over 1300 rods there that have to be removed. America tonights michael oglue returns from two weeks in japan reporting on the nuclear disaster. He talked to tepco about the dangerous process. The owner today began the painstaking and dangerous process of removing spent nuclear fuel from reactor 4. 1331 rods need to be removed. The International Community has been anxiously watching the operation. Amidst fears that radiation could be released if the operation is botched. And the Assembly Rods were to fall or lift debris from the explosion keeps the fuel from being removed. I spoke to masaoki ono about the tricky operation. Tepco is preparing for this extremely delicate process of removing the spent rods from unit 4. How confident are you that that can happen safely . We have been making careful preparations so that we can be confident in our ability to safely remove the spent fuel. We have been preparing the proper equipment in order to remove the spent fue fuel. We are giving substantial training to the operators who will be doing the work. We have prepared procedures and contingencies for the operation he that will arise. Because we were handling spent nuclear fuel we must conduct the operation carefully and we are moving forward with safety as our top priority. What do you say to people who say look, the most Dangerous Nuclear disaster since chernobyl happened on tepco ground under your watch. Why are we allowing them to do this operation independently . It is true that the accident at Fukushima Daiichi was terrible. However, the disaster was caused by a tsunami. Unfortunately we are forced with the situation that we see today. We must of course apologize for the anxious i anxiety we have o many people. The japanese government is overseeing our work and we have solicited the opinions of International Experts in order to be well prepared for this operation. One major step tepco has taken to ensure the safe removal is installation of a steel structure where the spent pool is located, four fuel assemblies containing approximately 80 fuel rods apiece was safely loaded into the storage cask. Michael pool is with us, an interesting look at this. How long will this take . Tepco says this will end at the end of 2014 but we will see about that. You were just there for around ten days. What is the climate like for the apeople living there, for residents, are they confident that this operation will go as planned or are there safety concerns . No matter where you go there is great concern about tepco the company who is undertaking this task. There are people that say this is a Dishonest Company who wasnt very forthcoming to the public about the dangers in the moments and days following that initial disaster back in 2011. They want to see the japanese government take over this operation. They want the japanese government to enlist the help of experts from the International Community. But i have to say that, you know, as with any issue and in any country, its not as if the entire public is engaged on this. I can assure you that you know on the streets of tokyo theres not a lot of nailbiting right now but along the seaside communities up north where those communities were pretty hit theyre pretty concerned about this. Just to be sure, were talking no International Oversight of this cleanup operation . The iaea has, there have been some experts that the government has spoken to on sort of a less formal base i but for the most part this is japans problem and japan is going to resolve it on their own. They certainly have a lot to resolve. It has been three years since the disaster and the japanese in some ways are still having to deal with this, arent they . Well, yeah. Its a huge problem. And what weve basically seen is theres a real physical component to this. We are talking about 160,000 or so people who were displaced from their communities so they had to find another place to live. But the real concern right now what they are really haunted by is almost a psychological component here. Were talking about radiation. It is insidious to people and it creates a whole lot of fear. The people we spoke to in japan say you cant smell it, you cant touch it. You cant see it. And so what that does is, it creates this collective sense of uncertainty and it is ripping families apart. Aalmost three years from the incident we were meeting families that were getting divorced because of this. Husbands fathers, who say i trust the radiation levels that the government is telling us that its safe to live in this town. We have mothers, wives, on the other hand, that say, it is over my dead body that you are going to drag our children back to that town. As a result they are getting a divorce. What we have also found is there are local communities that have been sort of set up as refuges. Camps for 160,000 people that have been displaced. Local leaders are telling us you know for first part we are seeing stress levels higher than weve ever seen, that there are stress related diseases that at this point have killed more people that be any radiation has than any radiation has. To this date there hasnt been any single death related to radiation at least not yet. Its really, really interesting. I know youre going ohave an indepth look at this, you will have that in the next couple of weeks. Michael thanks for joining us. Sure thing. Up next, from one disaster to the other. We join the philippines president , joie chen speaks to him why he is camping out with typhoon victims. The marsh life, they can make a living without having an education or without having to live in the city. Now, a snapshot of stories making headlines on america tonight. The u. S. Military is on a mission to train libyan troops. The training of five to 7,000 libyan soldiers, improving security as violence continues to grow, since ousting of dictator moammar gadhafi. Between 1940 and 1945, more than 1 Million People mos mostly jews died at the auschwitz death camp. Scientists say that mars early atmosphere was thick enough to sustain water and possibly signs of life. Well, ten days after a monster typhoon devastated the central philippines, relief and aid is still not reaching victims in all of the affected areas. The toll of the disaster is absolutely staggering. Almost 4,000 dead. 18,000 injured and the u. N. Says more than 3 Million People were left homeless. The filipino government is facing criticism for the pace of aid, are some say corruption there may also be playing a role. In an unusual philippine credit ben neeinono aquino is,. Strong showing to both International Donors and the local audience, president aquino, turned up to pass out biscuits to evacuees. Are you pleased with the pace of the rescue efforts, are you satisfied that iforts being done quickly enough . Im never satisfied when it comes to addressing the needs of our people. Whatever is achieved now, i always try increase the efficiency of all systems of government. Again, most people realize that this was in a sense, typhoon of such magnitude and such strength, it overwhelmed the systems that were already in place. The extent of the Destructive Force of this typhoon was of such a magnitude that even the personnel involved were themselves victims. Tacloban for instance, 290, only 20 were able to report to work. 20 were responding initially. You had a breakdown in power, breakdown in communications, breakdown in practically everything. Why sit important for you the president to be here . I think it symbolizes the fact that we as a people always stand together in adversity. You so do that from the capitol, why are you here personally . It does add a little impetus to the people on the ground if they know im paying attention oall the details. The president last promised to stay around the region to make sure the rescue operations remain on track. Thats america tonights joie chen, covering incidents from the are province not an easy task. Well hear how it is to get around that disaster zone. The philippines sits along the ring of fire. Prone to not only typhoons but earthquakes and torrential rainstorms. Philippines typhoon haiyan disaster should serve as a wakeup call. Liddy noctell, thank you so much for joining us. Members of your group and supporters have been fasting on a Hunger Strike trying obring teens how this is affecting the philippines. Tell us about that. The fasting was first announced by the head of the fight mean delegation here, the negotiators mere, but it inspired many of our members in the philippines, to join the fasting in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the center of the philippines who were really very hardly hit by typhoon haiyan or yolanda as we call the typhoon in the philippines. So a number of groups have started it late last week. Yes . You have been working on this issue of Climate Change for a number of years now. And ironically there have been more natural disasters during this summit for the last couple of years. Do you feel like anyone is actually paying attention to what youre trying to say there . Well, it does help that there is public attention, Media Attention on the philippines in the last two conference parties the one in doha and then here, because of the extreme weather events, the typhoons that we are talking about at this time. But were not quite sure if the leaders of the governments around the world are actually listening hard, because we have seen very little progress in the negotiations in the last few years. It is my understanding that you have friends, family members