METH DEMAND IS UP, STATE OFFICIALS SAY

Demand for methamphetamine in Iowa is increasing so rapidly that a special
task force - paid for with federal funds - has been formed to fight the drug.

A record number of methamphetamine manufacturing sites was found last year
as demand for the potent stimulant apparently edged up, state law
enforcement officials say.

Federal money is paying for a new task force to fight the makeshift drug
labs in Polk and 16 other central Iowa counties where most of the sites
have been found in recent years.

The 17 central Iowa counties account for 55 percent of all the meth labs
discovered in the state despite having just 25 percent of Iowa's
population, said Jerry Nelson, director of the new investigative agency.
The task force was formed to help smaller law enforcement agencies that
lack manpower, money and expertise to eradicate meth labs in their areas.

Authorities say that meth remains a vexing problem in Iowa, after use of
the highly addictive stimulant appeared to level off in 2000. State
officials are troubled by signs of increased demand and sales in 2001.

Janet Zwick of the Iowa Department of Public Health said that the number of
patients citing meth as their primary drug problem who were admitted to or
screened for treatment programs increased from 4,067 in 2000 to 4,745 last
year, the most ever. The previous high was 1998, when 4,484 patients
reported meth as their drug of choice.

"I want to watch it very closely," she said. "I think we need to make sure
our program for methamphetamine is the best it can be."

Iowa authorities found more than 500 meth-making sites last year, a record
for state officials, and 255 more sites were found by local agencies. That
figure alone doesn't mean there's more meth in Iowa, because authorities
agree that 80 percent to 90 percent of Iowa's meth comes from Southwestern
states and Mexico.

Methamphetamine has been made in various forms for decades - for example,
it was Adolf Hitler's favorite drug, and was popular with renegade
motorcycle gangs in the 1970s and "80s.

The drug went mainstream in the past decade, as Iowa was targeted by
Mexican drug cartels as an area ripe for trafficking, authorities have
said. Meth claimed thousands of addicts and overwhelmed rural law
enforcement. It spawned crimes ranging from farm burglaries to bank
robberies to murder, and it littered the countryside with garbage from
makeshift laboratories set up to make the drug.

Nelson, who also supervises the state Narcotics Enforcement Division's
Methamphetamine Laboratory Team, said better investigative techniques and
increased cooperation among law enforcement agencies resulted in more meth
lab discoveries last year. The public has learned more about meth and has
become more likely to spot evidence of illegal labs, too.

Nelson's task force members will urge merchants to report customers who
purchase large amounts of items used in the manufacture of meth, including
starter fluid and lithium batteries.

The task force is made up of two agents from the state Narcotics
Enforcement Division and five area law enforcement officers. One deputy
each from the Polk, Warren and Wapello counties sheriff's departments has
been assigned full time to the task force, as well as police officers from
Centerville and Creston.

Officials in Warren County know they have a meth problem.

"There has been a 350 percent increase in drug cases in the past five
years," said Warren County Attorney Kevin Parker. "We have handled over 600
drug cases this year, compared to 250 five years ago." A large number of
those cases involve methamphetamine.

Convictions for making meth can result in 25-year prison sentences. The
investigations are time-consuming efforts that involve obtaining search
warrants and depositions, as well as the actual trial, Parker said.

Warren County Sheriff Jim Lee said methamphetamine use has not slowed. The
witches" brew of toxic and volatile ingredients used to manufacture meth
includes anhydrous ammonia, used to fertilize farm fields. That might be a
factor in the large amount of arrests in Warren County, he said.

The county is primarily a farming area near the Des Moines metropolitan
area. Meth manufacturers can drive a few miles from the city to find
anhydrous ammonia storage tanks, Lee said.