SPOKANE HAS SURGE IN METH LABS

SPOKANE - Spokane County is experiencing the biggest surge in
methamphetamine-lab seizures statewide so far in 2001, with law enforcement
on pace to more than double the number of busts over last year.

With the year just half over, the number of lab seizures as of Thursday
reached 87, already exceeding last year's total of 74, Spokane police
spokesman Dick Cottam said.

The figures include seizures of working labs where drug production was
under way, "box labs" where meth-making equipment is stored and often moved
from one location to another to avoid law enforcement, and sites where meth
chemicals are dumped.

Drug-lab responses are up 47 percent statewide this year, with 843 through
the end of May, compared with 575 through the first five months of last
year, according to state Department of Ecology figures.

Last year's 12-month total was 1,449 - a sevenfold increase from 207
responses in 1997.

Despite Spokane County's surge, Pierce County remains the state leader this
year in drug-lab responses, with 287 through May, the state figures show.
As has been the case in recent years, King County is second and Spokane
County third.

The state figures include some incidents not counted by local law-
enforcement numbers, in part because the Ecology Department is sometimes
responsible for cleaning up drug chemical dumps without involvement of law
officers, said Dave Byers, an Ecology Department spokesman in Lacey,
Thurston County.

Despite the growth in Spokane meth-lab activity, at least 60 percent of the
drug used locally is shipped in from Mexico, the Tri-Cities or Yakima,
Cottam said.

In contrast, nearly all meth used in Pierce County is produced locally,
said Ed Troyer, a Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman.

"Our meth dealers are well-established here," he said.

The latest bust in Spokane was an example of some recent trends. Police on
Thursday raided a rental house on the city's well-heeled South Hill after
being tipped off by a local merchant who reported someone had been
frequently buying common items that can be used to make meth, Cottam said.

Such items include camp-stove fuel, rock salt, iodine and cold medications
containing ephedrine.

Methamphetamine, a synthetic stimulant that can be smoked, snorted,
injected or taken in pill form, has spread across the U.S.

In 1999, Washington had the second-highest number of meth labs busted in
the nation, next to California, according to the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration.