NUMBER OF METH RAIDS IS INCREASING IN MISSOURI

Missouri's methamphetamine problem is growing, and police, in an escalating
battle against the illegal drug, have uncovered more than 200 meth labs
this year in Jefferson and Franklin counties, according to state crime
statistics.

Missouri surpassed California last year to lead the nation with 2,130 raids
on drug labs or discoveries of ingredient caches and meth-related dumps.

This year, a county-by-county breakdown by the Missouri Highway Patrol
shows the state already had reached 2,100 raids through September. And
Detective James Jones, the head of the Jefferson County drug task force,
said last week that his county alone had raided more than 30 labs since the
Highway Patrol compiled those statewide figures.

For years, the drug has been associated primarily with the Ozarks, and
Jasper County in southwest Missouri still leads this year's count with 136
meth raids and seizures through the end of September. But Jefferson County
finished second with 115 cases, and Franklin County wasn't far behind with
112 meth-related incidents in the same period.

Figures weren't as high in other St. Louis-area counties. The Highway
Patrol says there were 44 raids and seizures in St. Louis County, 39 in
Lincoln County, 15 in St. Charles County and four in St. Louis.

The Illinois State Police have not tallied meth raids and seizures for this
year, but an official said that police had found 666 labs and dumps last
year. State Police report that last year, 37 labs had been raided in
Madison County, four in St. Clair County and three in Monroe County.

David Jacobson, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Washington, said the numbers might not be as alarming as they appear.

Most meth is made in California's so-called superlabs, which can make as
much as 10 pounds of the drug in an eight-hour period. Jacobson said that
Missouri labs tended to be much smaller operations based in a kitchen,
garage or automobile and that these labs were capable of producing only a
few ounces of the drug.

"Unfortunately, no matter how crude and small a lab is, it's still a lab,"
he said. "It still poses a serious threat to the environment, to law
enforcement and to the community."

Jacobson said that in some ways, the diffuse nature of meth manufacturing
in Missouri made it harder to police than large-scale marijuana or cocaine
distribution. He said the federal agency had responded by training police
officers throughout the state in meth investigation and interdiction
techniques.

Jones, the Jefferson County drug investigator, said that training was one
reason the county has raided more labs this year.

"The question we're trying to answer across the state is whether meth is
getting this much bigger or are we catching more (drug) cooks," Jones said.
"It could be both, but I think the numbers are mainly up because of better
cooperation between agencies and increased public awareness."

Corp. Jason J. Grellner, the head of Franklin County's three-member
narcotics squad, cites another factor. "It's a pyramid scheme," Grellner
said. "When people cook meth, they aren't alone. Each cook teaches two or
three other people and, eventually, those people start making the drug and
teach two or three others."

The only way to counter that growth, he said, was to go after the drug's
chemical precursors, which include ingredients such as over-the-counter
cold pills, ether and anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer usually stolen from
farmers.

Grellner said "there is no end in sight" until ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine, the ingredients extracted from cold pills, are made a
"Schedule 5" narcotic. That designation wouldn't require prescriptions but
would make retailers keep the medicine behind counters and sell it only to
customers who present identification.

A recovering addict who worked as a lookout for meth labs in Jefferson
County said that Missouri's meth problem was bigger than most people and
many police officers realized. He thinks others are getting started on meth
for the same reason he did: It's less expensive than crack cocaine, and the
high lasts days instead of hours.

"It doesn't seem to eat your money up like other drugs," said the
31-year-old addict, who is from De Soto but now is living in a residential
treatment house. (Patients are asked not to identify themselves to
reporters.) "But you find out that's a lie. It will take every penny you
have and everything you own."

Another meth addict at the facility said that many users of the drug defied
stereotypes. She said that people unfamiliar with the symptoms of meth
addiction didn't recognize the meth addicts they saw every day and that, as
a result, they didn't realize just how big the problem was.

"You can see these people everyday at ... the grocery store, but all you'll
see is someone twitching or making funny neck and hand movements," she
said. "But it's recognizable to a user."

Steven Huss, director of Comtrea, Jefferson County's mental health agency,
said that for the first time, more people were coming to the agency for
help with drug addiction than alcoholism or mental illness. Huss said that
focusing on meth interdiction could be counterproductive because addicts
switched to different drugs.

Although drug-addiction counselors and meth addicts in Jefferson County say
that use of the drug is high in Jefferson County, Jones said that he didn't
think Jefferson County had a much bigger problem than St. Louis or St.
Charles counties.

"I think the biggest difference is that we have a group of officers that's
focused almost entirely on meth," Jones said. "And like anything, the more
often you do something, the better you get. We're getting very good at
finding labs."