GRANT TO HELP STATE WITH METH CHEMICALS

Kentucky State Police Use Containers To Cut Costs, Improve Safety

Kentucky State Police Sgt. Sherman Tebault showed some equipment used to
recover evidence at suspected methamphetamine labs.

Kentucky, which is seeing a steady increase in police seizures of
illegal methamphetamine labs, is the first state to receive a federal
grant that will give police a safer, quicker and cheaper way to store
and dispose of the confiscated chemicals used to make the drug.

Starting next month, the state will get Drug Enforcement
Administration allocations totaling about $300,000 to purchase meth
storage containers that hold up to 220 pounds of chemicals. The money
will also go to help pay specially trained contractors who will empty
the containers each week, disposing of the chemicals according to
federal guidelines.

Kentucky State Police have had some containers since 1999, and the
program will allow an expansion of that effort.

DEA officials say Kentucky was chosen for the pilot effort because of
its growing and statewide methamphetamine problem, which they blame in
part on an increase in "tweaker labs" or "mom and pops," which can
brew a batch of the stimulant in a few hours.

Numbers recorded by the El Paso Intelligence Center, which tracks meth
lab seizures, show that 19 labs were seized throughout Kentucky in
1998 - and that the number increased to 372 labs last year. State law
enforcement officials say that number likely is too low; they estimate
that less than half of the labs seized are included in the EPIC
numbers because many law enforcement agencies don't consistently
report seizures.

As the numbers grow, the state has had trouble getting contract
cleanup companies to respond immediately to the seized labs, said Will
Glaspy, a DEA spokesman in Washington, D.C. As a result, officers have
to wait at the scene - sometimes for as long as 36 hours - until it
can be cleared.

The new system will allow officers to transport the chemicals in
buckets to the storage containers at the post for pickup.

"We're more or less looking at this as a pilot project," said Glaspy.
"We're going to have to evaluate it to see if it's cost-effective and
saves time. We want to see how it works before it is tried elsewhere."

Within the next several months, one of the 8-by-10-foot containers
will be stationed at each of the 16 Kentucky State Police posts, where
trained officers can take properly packed confiscated labs for
storage. Officials with the state police, which initiated the cleanup
project on a smaller scale four years ago, say it will save agencies
hundreds of hours of officers' time and could slash overall cleanup
costs for a typical lab to $500 from an average of $4,000 to $6,000.

Law enforcement officials from the state police and the local DEA
office met yesterday to discuss details of the expanded program,
including the training necessary for officers who will work with the
containers. Officers across the state already have been trained in how
to deal with meth-making chemicals, from anhydrous ammonia and ether
to household chemicals like drain cleaner and starter fluid, which can
cause respiratory and nerve damage.

"The average citizen doesn't realize the toxicity of these chemicals,"
said Capt. Mitch Bailey, commander of the state police's western drug
enforcement branch in Bowling Green. "Our concern is with vapors that
are associated with these labs and combining different solvents and
compounds."

Across the nation people have died from exposure to anhydrous ammonia,
which can burn the body from the inside out. Countless others have
been burned when meth labs exploded during the drug-making process.

During the summer, meth labs "blossom like dandelions," said Tony
King, agent in charge at the DEA office in Louisville. King said
methamphetamine labs and the drugs they produce constitute the No. 1
drug problem agents see in the state.

Louisville Metro Police also are seeing an increase in methamphetamine
labs, said Lt. William Wiley.

"We're finding labs in mini-storage areas, garages, basements of
houses and in hotel rooms," Wiley said. "It seems like everybody and
their brother is making meth."

Having disposal containers at every state police post and no longer
having to wait for contractors to collect chemicals at a seized lab
"would help a lot," Wiley said.

State police came up with the idea of storing meth chemicals in the
containers in 1999, when federal funding for cleanup dried up for
several months.

Maj. Mike Sapp, who researched the container idea and spearheaded the
implementation for the state police, said that without federal grants,
the agency would have to come up with $4,000 to pay contractors for
the cleanup of each small lab and $10,000 for some large ones.

"That would have been a budget-breaker for us," he said.

Under the pilot program, trained police officers will pack meth
chemicals at the scene in five-gallon buckets, at a cost of about $125
per bucket. The average small lab needs about four buckets. The
buckets are to be placed into the container at the police post, where
it eventually will be picked up by technicians for disposal.

Since 1999, the state police have purchased four containers with other
grant money and have ordered six others. The remaining six will be
paid for with the DEA grant money.

Other states have inquired about Kentucky's method for storing the
chemicals until disposal.

"I'm pleased we're taking this direction," said Sapp, the project
manager for the new grant. "It really worked well for us. It cut down
on the man-hours we have to spend by at least 60 percent. It cut the
amount of tax dollars we had to spend by about 90 percent. ... We have
to get the biggest bang for our bucks these days."

Glaspy said before the grant money was awarded to Kentucky, DEA
officials look at the need in Kentucky and the success of what the
state police had already been doing.

"It left everyone optimistic that this will be cost-effective," he
said.