DRUG CZAR, MISSISSIPPI LAW AGENTS SEEK ANSWERS TO METH PROBLEM

JACKSON, Miss.- A steady stream of cross-country traffic passes through
Warren County every day, and Sheriff Warren Pace said his department
catches some drug carriers along Interstate 20.

But one of the biggest drug problems is manufactured in laboratories right
there in the hilly terrain bordering the Mississippi River.

"The overwhelming majority of our crystal methamphetamine cases are home
grown," Pace said Wednesday as he and other Mississippi law enforcement
agents met with the top official from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I fortunately have three investigators on staff that have been trained by
DEA at their academy at Quantico, Va., and equipped by DEA," Pace said. "So
we very aggressively pursue it."

DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the production of crystal meth, often
using farm chemicals and over-the-counter cold pills, started on the West
Coast in the 1980s and spread eastward. He said the drug has become a major
problem in rural central states, and recipes for making it can be found on
the Internet.

"Meth represents a danger in the heartland of America," Hutchinson said.

Jackson is among 30 cities the DEA administrator is visiting over the next
three months to discuss methamphetamine enforcement.

"It's a serious problem that I believe we can turn the tide back on,"
Hutchinson said.

Dunn Lampton, U.S. attorney for southern Mississippi, said when he was a
district attorney, he and his staff prosecuted cases in which people were
manufacturing crystal meth in hotel rooms, often with children present.

"The idea that you might be staying in a motel and next door there is a
drug lab is very chilling," Lampton said.

A DEA information sheet distributed Wednesday said about 52 kilograms of
methamphetamine had been seized on highways in Mississippi since the
federal budget year started last Oct. 1.