STATE CRANKS UP WAR AGAINST DRUGS

AG Plugs $1.3m Into Fight Against Meth Production

APPLETON -- Wisconsin Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager unveiled a new
initiative Friday designed to better coordinate efforts to shut down
methamphetamine labs.

Lautenschlager said she will redirect a $1.3 million U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration grant to train and certify local authorities in the fight
against methamphetamine, and she said she also will create a special office
within the state's Division of Criminal Investigation.

Methamphetamine - also called crank, speed, ice and crystal - is a drug
made in home or portable labs from common substances, some of which are
volatile and classified as hazardous materials. Because of the danger of
chemicals in labs, fire departments and hazardous materials teams are
routinely called to assist when police raid the labs.

Lautenschlager announced her plans to step up Wisconsin's efforts against
it at the 2003 Attorney General's Law Enforcement Conference held in Appleton.

"Meth is unique," she said. "Responding to meth is different than other
drug cases. You need to be specially trained in how to respond."

Meth is also unique in that those who create it generally set up their labs
in sparsely populated areas. While Wisconsin has had far fewer meth lab
busts than states such as Missouri and Iowa, Lautenschlager said the
problem has moved out of rural northwestern Wisconsin to become an issue
statewide.

Since October 2002, police in the Fox Valley have shut down three suspected
meth labs, in rural Iola, in Little Chute and most recently in Menasha. The
suspected Menasha lab was discovered in a rented home May 5.

"We want to get as many people as possible certified in every county so
there will be someone who knows how to respond," Lautenschlager said. "It
is not confined to northwest Wisconsin anymore."

Lautenschlager, who recently merged the Division of Criminal Investigation
with the Division of Narcotics Enforcement, said she has created a special
detail within the unit to handle the meth initiative.

Special Agent in Charge Cynthia Giese is heading the effort.

"We are going to expand the training so that everyone will know the proper
procedures," said Giese.

That will be coupled with a certification process that will allow local
officials to deal directly with a meth lab instead of calling in the State
Crime Lab.

"Hazmat personnel will have 40 hours of required training to become Crime
Lab-certified before they can take down a meth lab," she said.

Along with that, she said, the state will furnish local authorities with
equipment such as respirators.

Grant funds also include the cost of cleanup, and a certain protocol must
be invoked to qualify for those funds, which is also part of the training
program.

"We had a recent lab that cost $130,000 to clean up," said Giese.