SHERIFF SAYS WAR ON METH DRUG LABS NEVER-ENDING

The Number Of Methamphetamine Labs Is Growing. Sheriff Dawsy Seeks
The Public's To Help Find And Eradicate Them

INVERNESS - When Citrus Sheriff Jeff Dawsy talks about the county's
efforts to stop the spread of methamphetamine, he uses language
pulled right from a battlefield.

"We are truly at war," he says, speaking to a roomful of deputies and
reporters.

A bit later, he's talking about the impact of meth on the children of
drug addicts.

"It's a never-ending battle," he says.

In the last couple of years, meth has moved into Citrus County. The
drug, known for its prevalence in rural parts of the country and its
recipe of household products, is spreading quickly, Dawsy said.

From October 2003 to September 2004, local authorities seized two
meth labs in Citrus. From October 2004 to September 2005, they seized 16.

To combat the problem, the Sheriff's Office created the Meth Task
Force, a group of eight law enforcement officials assigned to
concentrate on the meth problem. On Wednesday afternoon, the deputies
spoke with reporters as part of their plan to alert people about the
dangers of meth as well as how to recognize the signs of meth labs
and addicts in their neighborhoods.

Since the creation of the task force, deputies have made 47 arrests,
22 of them involved in the production of meth.

It's not going to be easy to eradicate meth, Dawsy said. For one
thing, it's easy to get most of the ingredients to manufacture the
drug. For another, it's a tightly knit group of people in the
community who cook it, so it's difficult for law enforcement to
infiltrate, he said.

But, fortunately for Citrus officials, meth isn't a new issue for
much of the country, so local officials can evaluate how other
agencies have dealt with the problem.

"This is probably the number one pressing issue in the nation," he said.

Meth has already caused a lot of problems here, the sheriff said.

A cooking mistake at a meth lab was to blame in a fire in 2002 near
Arrowhead. Dawsy called meth a "catalyst" for other crimes. Meth is
expensive - $100 per gram - and many people addicted to it resort to
stealing in order to support their habit, said detectives Kris Bentz
and Robbie Crosnoe.

Addicts can stay awake for days at a time, hallucinate and become
extremely paranoid, putting the welfare of their children in
jeopardy, deputies said. Their quality of life deteriorates
significantly because of the drug, they said.

To illustrate the point, deputies showed before-and-after photographs
of meth users. The later images showed people with open sores on
their faces, reddish and blotchy skin and rotting teeth.

Deputies briefly explained the two types of meth use, hoping to
inform the community about signs of meth labs, which can be found in
something as small as a gym bag and as large as a farm field.

The first type is the "Nazi" method, a recipe that involves anhydrous
ammonia, a substance commonly used to fertilize farm fields. At this
type of lab, officials usually see multiple tanks of the ammonia.

The second type of the "Red Phosphorous" method, which uses the
chemical to create the drug. The ingredients must be heated, which
can cause deadly fumes.

Another reason to combat meth is the cost of cleaning up these labs,
said Patty Jefferson, a member of the county's Hazmat team. In 2004,
lab clean-up cost the Drug Enforcement Administration about $773,000,
deputies said.

Deputies urged residents to look out for meth labs in their
neighborhoods. Some signs include: a strong chemical odor; blacked
out or covered windows; lots of traffic from a home at night; lots of
bottles or jugs; and chemical containers.