JEFFERSON COUNTY DRAWS NATIONAL NOTICE IN METH BATTLE

Jefferson County is part of the Midwest High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program and that should come as bad news
for makers of methamphetamine and dealers.

The designation came Monday from John Walters, the director of
National Drug Control Policy and President Bush's "drug czar."

Franklin, Boone and Cole counties were also designated as part of the program.

The HIDTA program will bring an additional $500,000 in federal funds
to help coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement
activities against drug trafficking throughout the Midwest HIDTA.
Jefferson County will receive $125,000 of the $500,000.

According to Walters, who spoke at the Franklin County Administrative
Center in Union on Monday, positive tests for amphetamines, including
methamphetamine, have decreased nearly 30 percent in Missouri during
the first five months of 2006 versus the same time period last year.

Since 2001, there has been a 38 percent drop in the number of
Missouri students who have tried meth at least once in their
lifetimes, Walters reported, a decrease of 700,000 students.
Likewise, the number of meth lab seizures has also declined. From
2004 to 2005, the number of reported meth lab incidents statewide
decreased by 22 percent.

In Jefferson County, the number of lab seizures has also decreased
steadily. However, a quick rise in numbers of clandestine lab
incidents as well as the number of residents in drug treatment,
hospital visits and juvenile court referrals between 2003 and 2004
made the county idead for the HIDTA program.

Drug traffickers target Jefferson County because of its location
between two major highways, interstates 44 and 55, and the county's
rural setting.

"Missourians can be proud that their state has made significant
progress reducing methamphetamine production and use," Walters said.
"But the threat from Mexican drug trafficking organizations looms
large. By designating Franklin, Jefferson, Cole and Boone counties as
part of the Midwest HIDTA, we can leverage the progress already made
and more effectively push back against individuals and organizations
seeking to use the area as a transit corridor for drugs."

County officials will use the new resources to coordinate
investigations and target local clandestine meth labs and Mexican
cartels using interstates 70, 55 and 44 as key transit corridors for
illegal drugs. According to Walters, these violent organizations ship
large quantities of meth and other drugs into and through the region.

"Missouri is known for a lot of things," said U.S. Sen. Christopher
"Kit" Bond, who accompanied Walters along with U.S. Sen. Jim Talent.
"We're celebrating as a state because the Cardinals have made it into
the playoffs, we've got the Arch and we're known for our fishing and
hunting--we've also become known as the meth capital of the country.
I don't have to tell anyone here the magnitude of this problem.

"The meth epidemic is not just confined to our inner cities and
hard-core users. It is common in small towns, and suburbia, even
among families and children. All of us--law enforcement, federal,
state and local officials--are continuing to attack the meth problem
on many fronts.

"This new designation will be another weapon in the arsenal of
Franklin, Jefferson, Cole and Boone counties as they fight the menace
of illegal drugs."

Talent and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have co-sponsored a
bill that places the common household medicines containing
ingredients used to make meth behind pharmacy counters.

"This designation will make resources available to our sheriffs and
local law enforcement working to combat meth trafficking and
distribution in their communities," Talent said. "We need to get
ahead of the meth problem, which is why this funding is so important."

The HIDTA program designates regions that have serious drug
trafficking problems, which negatively impact other areas of the
country. The program provides additional federal resources to those
areas to help eliminate or reduce drug trafficking and its harmful
consequences.

Law enforcement organizations within HIDTAs assess drug trafficking
problems and design specific plans to reduce or eliminate the
production, manufacture, transportation, distribution, and chronic
use of illegal drugs and money laundering.

"We can't let the meth-makers and dealers have one ounce of breathing
room," Bond said.