JACKSON COUNTY REPORTS MORE CONTROL OVER METH PROBLEM

Just three years ago, authorities in eastern Jackson County raided
methamphetamine laboratories daily. The county was dubbed the Meth Capital
of the World.

Michael Shanahan, 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."

But all that has changed for the better.

Over the last couple of years, several area law enforcement agencies have
reported drastic reductions in the number of meth laboratory seizures. By
contrast, last year the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported a
record of 2,155 meth laboratory seizures nationwide.

Jackson County Prosecutor Bob Beaird praised the work of local police and
drug task force officials -- a team of officers from 13 law enforcement
agencies.

"I think the results that we've had in the war against the meth
problem...is the difference between daylight and dark," he said. "You have
to take your hat off to (them)."

Methamphetamine -- a potent stimulant and hallucinogen -- is made in part
from common household cleansers and cold medicines. Its manufacture
produces fumes and flames that can be explosive. Its use often causes
violent and unpredictable behavior.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the meth problem primarily plagued Western and
Southwestern states. But by the mid-1990s the appetite for meth had become
ravenous in the Midwest.

In Missouri, the number of meth laboratory seizures more than doubled from
188 in 1996 to 421 in 1998.

Federal officials in 1996 declared Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois,
Nebraska and South Dakota a "high-intensity drug-trafficking area" and
poured millions of dollars into the region to hire more law enforcement
officers.

Locally, authorities turned their attention to Jackson County, which logged
300 meth lab busts in 1997.

Jackson County Drug Task Force officers alone busted 119 meth laboratories
that year. So far this year, task force officers have raided fewer than a
dozen, including one in eastern Jackson County on Friday night.

Authorities said strict enforcement and laws limiting the sale of meth
ingredients helped control the problem and drive perpetrators away.

By far the most progress has been seen in Independence.

At the height of Jackson County's meth problem the city became a
manufacturing center. With seven major highways bordering and
criss-crossing the city, traffickers had easy access through the area,
Independence police said.

Also, traffickers are attracted to highly transient areas -- such as motels
and rental units -- where they can easily pick up and leave. Independence's
abundance of rental units (about 30 percent of housing) and issues with
absentee landlords exacerbated the meth problem, said Independence police
spokesman Bill Pross.

Meth activity hit its peak in 1997, when city police seized 109
laboratories. Authorities and residents had had enough.

Officers visited neighborhood groups and community gatherings, teaching
residents and store owners how to identify suspicious activity and
recognize cooking paraphernalia and odors.

Frustrated neighbors and business owners took down license plate numbers
and descriptions of people. The department created a 24-hour drug hot line
and received about 300 calls a year.

"A lot of people got smart real quick," Pross said. "The Independence
community as a whole adopted zero tolerance for this."

The result: This year, police have busted only 33 laboratories.

Authorities soon noticed meth activity seeping from Independence into east
Kansas City.

Kansas City police trained to process meth labs worked closely with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Enforcement efforts quickly evolved
into the formation of the Metro Methamphetamine Drug Task Force, which goes
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."

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

Kansas authorities now find themselves battling a growing meth problem.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local authorities busted 203
meth laboratories in Kansas in 1999, compared with 35 in 1998.

These laboratories are sprinkled throughout the state, but federal agents
are seeing clusters in the Topeka and Garden City areas, said Shirley
Armstead, spokeswoman for the St. Louis division of the DEA.

Besides highly transient areas, Armstead said, meth cooks also seek out
isolated regions to escape detection.

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.

Rural law enforcement agencies have been forced to rethink their
drug-fighting strategies.

Weber said aggressive enforcement led to six busts this year, down from 21
laboratory seizures in 1999.

Other police departments in Jackson County report similar progress.

Lee's Summit police Sgt. Joe Piccinini said that in 1998 police busted
about 10 laboratories, but there was only one bust this year.

"I think it's just getting harder for the cooks to find the chemical
products," he said.

Like Independence, Lee's Summit police educated their big retailers.

"So if someone comes in wanting a whole bunch of sinus medicine or coffee
filters, if they're buying more than any average person would use, (store
clerks) know to alert us," Piccinini said. "And they've done a very good
job of doing so."

Stringent limits on meth precursors hurt the trade in Grandview as well.

"The people doing this now are getting smarter," said Grandview police
Capt. Brent Miller. "But for everything they do, we come up with something
to countermand what they do, and we go back and forth."

Metro Methamphetamine Task Force officials play a similar cat-and-mouse
game. Zimmerman said their efforts were starting to pay off.

Officials busted 120 meth laboratories in the four counties to date, down
25 percent from last year.

"We're beginning to see the impact," Zimmerman said. "We still have a
problem. It's still too many. But we've made an impact."

Despite the progress, authorities said they had to remain vigilant. Now
authorities are looking for traffickers smuggling the drug through the county.

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

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