INVESTIGATORS: METH GROWTH SUBSIDING

To learn more For information about the methamphetamine problem in Thurston
County, and to learn the signs of a meth lab operation in your
neighborhood, go to www.methmonster.org.

The once steady rise in methamphetamine labs in Thurston County appears to
be leveling off, law enforcement officials said Monday. "We've seen a
slowdown in activity the past few months," said Capt. Dan Kimball of the
Thurston County Sheriff's Office. "When you take the key players out of the
community and put them in jail, the numbers begin to drop -- it's encouraging."

When the 2002 numbers are in, narcotics officers expect to see a downturn
in the number of meth lab seizures by police and meth dump sites discovered
by the state Department of Ecology, said Capt. Jim Chamberlain of the
Thurston County Narcotics Task Force.

Through October, there were 105 lab seizures and discovered dump sites in
the county, Chamberlain said.

That compares with 151 for all of 2001 and 127 in 2000.

"Indications are the labs are moving into counties with less aggressive
enforcement," Kimball told Thurston County commissioners Monday. "But the
labs aren't going away."

Changing tactics

In fact, he said, those who cook up methamphetamine are breaking the
production up into different processes at different locations to escape notice.

Monday, the commissioners approved receipt of a 2003 federal grant to the
sheriff's office to continue the fight against methamphetamine.

The $98,289 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice is one of 22 grants
to local agencies in the state that are working against illicit meth labs
and the drug use associated with those labs.

Statewide, the federal funding totals $1.9 million for next year.

The money can be used to pay overtime, purchase additional supplies for
meth laboratory busts and pay for annual medical exams of law enforcement
officers engaged in the crackdown on meth labs, Kimball said.

Thurston County has had one of the highest concentrations of meth labs in
the state in recent years.

The highly addictive drug accounts for about 85 percent of all drug-related
arrests in the county, according to the sheriff's department.

Law enforcement officials estimate that meth use is linked to 80 percent of
all crime in the county.