'METH CAPITAL OF THE WORLD' CLEANS UP

Raids down in Jackson County, Mo.; officials wary of 'supply and demand'

Kansas City, Mo -- Methamphetamine production in Jackson County has fallen
sharply during the last few years, law enforcement agencies say.

Raids by the Jackson County Drug Task Force have dropped from 119 in 1997
to fewer than a dozen so far this year, though that number doesn't reflect
the work of other agencies. Kansas City has had about 40 lab seizures this
year, for example.

In total, various agencies logged 300 busts in Jackson County in 1997.

Michael Shanahan, the officer in charge of the Jackson County Drug Task
Force, remembers those days.

"Our backs were to the wall," he said. "Our people were asked to address
this every day. We had at least one or two labs a day." Methamphetamine, a
potent stimulant and hallucinogen, is made in part from common household
cleaners and cold medicines.

It's a different picture statewide. In Missouri the number of meth
laboratory seizures more than doubled from 188 in 1996 to 421 in 1998.

In 1996 authorities turned their attention to Jackson County, which some
dubbed the meth capital of the world.

Regional and federal authorities formed the Metro Methamphetamine Drug Task
Force to go after clandestine laboratories in Clay, Platte, Jackson and
Cass counties.

Capt. David Zimmerman, task force commander, said officers dismantled an
estimated 40 meth laboratories this year in Kansas City. "That's much lower
than it was last year," he said. "We're down both in number and in pace."

Independence, in Jackson County, has been a meth hotbed because of its easy
access to several interstates and its large transient population, due to
the quantity of motels and apartments, often with absentee landlords.

Authorities said stepped-up enforcement in the area pushed some meth cooks
into rural areas.

Meth cooks seek out isolated regions to escape detection, said Shirley
Armstead, spokeswoman for the St. Louis division of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Cass County Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Weber suspects that's what attracted some
meth cooks to his area.

"They've come down here where it's more remote, where they don't have
neighbors to smell the chemicals," he said.

Aggressive enforcement led to six busts in Cass County this year, down from
21 last year.

Authorities say meth still has a presence in Jackson County and is a
problem that likely will linger for some time.

"As long as people want the drugs, we'll never get rid of the drug
problem," said Armstead. "It's supply and demand."