METH LABS ON THE DECLINE, BUT CRAVING REMAINS STRONG

Not so long ago, police in the Lowcountry seemed to be facing a
never-ending battle against underground methamphetamine labs.

In places such as Dorchester County, officers were donning protective
suits with increasing regularity to clean up toxic messes left over
from "cooking" the highly addictive stimulant.

Last year, Dorchester County sheriff's deputies raided 18 labs. Then
the numbers dropped off. The Sheriff's Office reported raiding only
five labs in 2006 as of last week.

The resident agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in South Carolina said similar trends are appearing
throughout the country.

"We're seeing the same results that other states have seen, that the
meth lab numbers are going down," John Ozaluk said.

But he added, "That doesn't mean that our meth problem has gone away."

Reasons for the decline, say many in law enforcement, are recently
enacted state and federal laws.

A federal law that took effect in March required pharmacies and other
vendors to keep cold medicines with the ingredients ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine behind the counter or in locked cabinets. The amount
an individual can purchase is limited each month and buyers must show
photo identification. That has made essential ingredients for meth labs scarce.

"Just that action itself has really been helpful," Dorchester County
sheriff's 1st Sgt. Michael Miller said.

A state law that went into effect in November includes some of the
same requirements for drug vendors as the federal law. It also
creates special penalties for manufacturing meth in the presence of a
child or knowingly disposing of the toxic ingredients used to make the drug.

Other reasons given for the decrease in labs are harsher prison
sentences and recent convictions related to manufacturing meth, law
enforcement officials say.

Not everybody has seen as dramatic a decline as Dorchester County.

In Berkeley County deputies had shut down 16 labs this year as of
earlier this month, 12 since September, Capt.

Whilden Baggett said.

That is still well below 30 labs deputies found there in 2004.
Baggett said that isn't for lack of trying.

"We investigate them very aggressively," he said. "Any information we
get we follow through very thoroughly."

If the number of people seeking treatment is any indication, the
craving for meth remains strong. Public treatment centers in South
Carolina have seen a steady increase in meth-related admissions since 2000.

Statewide, 971 people were admitted to treatment programs run by the
Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services last fiscal year,
compared to 848 in 2005 and 501 in 2004, the agency's statistics
show. Most of those were in the Upstate.

The DEA thinks that though fewer local labs are churning out meth,
suppliers from outside South Carolina are filling the void.

"A large percentage of that is coming from Mexico," Ozaluk said.
"This is unfortunately another drug that gets put in that
transportation pipeline that makes its way to South Carolina."

Some Mexican super labs produce 50 to 100 pounds of meth at a time,
compared to just ounces at a time at a typical Lowcountry lab. The
drug is funneled across the U.S.-Mexico border, broken into smaller
loads and sent to distribution centers such as Atlanta, Ozaluk said.

A national survey of young adults showed that 1.89 percent of 18- to
25-year-olds in South Carolina reported using meth.

At No. 26, that puts the state in the middle of the pack
statistically, but ahead of any other state on the Eastern Seaboard,
according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Jimmy Mount, a spokesman for the state Department of Alcohol and
Other Drug Abuse Services, said that although meth is a growing
problem, it affects fewer people than some other drugs.

"Alcohol is always far and away the largest concern," Mount said.

About 45 percent of admissions at public facilities related to
illicit drugs last fiscal year involved marijuana and hashish, 39
percent cocaine and crack.

Meth-related admissions were about 6 percent.

As to why meth-lab busts are going down while people seeking
meth-related counseling is headed in the opposition direction, Mount
posited an alternate theory: that addicts could be seeking treatment
because their drug of choice is getting harder to find.

He said it would be hard to prove whether that was the case, or if
more of the drug is just arriving from Mexico.

Meth labs found in S.C.

YEAR ....................... LABS
2000 ............................... 6
2001 ............................. 10
2002 .............................100
2003 ............................ 130
2004 ............................ 254
2005 ............................ 245

On the Web National Clandestine Laboratory Register for South
Carolina at www.dea.gov/seizures/south-carolina.html.

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration