COUNTY NOTCHES SOME VICTORIES IN WAR ON METH

Labs: Other Areas Say Some Meth Cooks Got Out Of Pierce

Pierce County's attack on the methamphetamine epidemic appears to be making
headway, though it's still a ways from shedding its title as the state's
meth capital.

In the first six months of 2001, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department's
clandestine lab team busted 69 meth labs. That's less than half of the 201
labs found for all of 2000, a record year for the county.

"It's cautiously good news," Sheriff Paul Pastor said. "This is not to say
the problem has disappeared. It has not. It'll continue to be a serious
problem for a long time."

But while Pierce County has promising developments in the meth war, many
other jurisdictions across the state do not.

This year, several counties - including Spokane, Kitsap and King - are
poised to surpass their meth lab numbers for 2000, according to six-month
figures from the state Department of Ecology. Snohomish County officials
already have cleaned up more labs in 2001 than in all of last year.

"The whole meth problem is not going away," ecology department spokeswoman
Sandy Howard said, noting department officials have cleaned up 1,003 labs
around the state so far this year.

In Tacoma, the clandestine lab team found 84 labs in the first six months
of the year, Capt. Bill Meeks said. That's ahead of 141 for all of last year.

Exact numbers for the first six months of last year weren't available for
comparisons from several jurisdictions.

"We're doing the best we can with the resources," said Meeks, the commander
of the Special Investigations Division, which investigates narcotics and
vice crimes. Meth is his division's No. 1 problem.

"We're at a critical mass stage," Meeks said. "Either it has to start
coming down or it's literally going to implode. It's a nightmare."

The Washington State Patrol's Statewide Incident Response Team, which
cleans up labs across the state, has worked 198 in the first six months of
2001. That compares to 165 during the same period last year, or 357 for all
of 2000, State Patrol Sgt. Gary Gasseling said.

"It's not uncommon for us to be at two, three lab sites in one day," he said.

Officials in Thurston County have cleaned up 76 labs so far this year,
compared to 139 for all of 2000. King County sheriff's deputies busted up
119 labs through April 17, compared to 125 for all of last year, the
sheriff's department reported.

"If there is one main driver it has to be demand," King County Sheriff's
Sgt. John Urquhart said. "It is the drug of choice now."

Some counties are running into meth cooks who have left Pierce County to
produce the homemade drug in a seemingly less threatening environment.

"(The cooks) are taking some extreme lengths to get away," Gasseling said.
"They're going into smaller areas with less law enforcement and less
knowledge about it."

Pastor acknowledges some of the problem might be moving out of Pierce
County. He has received calls from other police chiefs and sheriffs, asking
him to stop sending them Pierce County's meth cooks.

"The environment is not the way it used to be" in the county, Pastor said.
"It's not as wide open as it was before."

So what has changed in Pierce County?

The county's relative success so far this year can be attributed to more
education and publicity, the county's anti-meth initiative and the
aggressiveness of the sheriff's meth team, officials said.

"We're targeting areas now where users get" the drugs, said Lt. Larry
Minturn, who's in charge of the meth unit. "We may not be at every
location, but they don't know that. They don't know where we'll be and when."

Last spring, Pierce County Council spent $1 million so that four deputies
and two property crimes detectives could be assigned to a newly created
meth lab unit, then the only full-time team in the state.

Since then, the team has gotten a handle on incoming complaints. Now they
are working on busting meth cooks and the sellers of the drug's key
ingredients before the labs get started.

They've also focused on organized crime rings with the help of federal
agents. So far this year, federal agents have helped Pierce County
sheriff's investigators and other local law enforcement agencies on two
major busts.

In March, federal officials got indictments for 12 members of a
pseudoephedrine trafficking organization operating mainly in Pierce County.
Pseudoephedrine, which is commonly found in cold medicine, is a major
ingredient in meth. Less than a month later, agents busted a Mexican
organization involved in producing and distributing meth along the
Interstate 5 corridor, from California to Canada.

"We're hitting it at the cottage-industry level, precursor-supply level and
at a larger level with the cartels," Pastor said.

Meth users and cooks know the law is against them.

"The paranoia level of meth users and meth cooks is at an all-time high,"
Pierce County sheriff's Sgt. Dave Dewey said. "They think all their friends
are talking to the police."

A new state law that goes into effect July 22 will add pressure to
retailers who sell large amounts of cold medicine at a time.

The law prohibits a single-sale transaction of more than three packages of
cold medicine containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine
to one person. A violation is a gross misdemeanor. In addition, the new law
prohibits anyone from possessing more than 15 grams of ephedrine,
pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine. That's also a gross misdemeanor.

"We intend to become fully proactive when that date hits," Minturn said.
"We don't want to hurt businesses. We want to work with businesses."

But along with the successes, Pierce County's clandestine team members are
seeing a disturbing new trend - the increase of "Red P" labs. The
high-production labs, which involve red phosphorous, are more volatile and
poisonous than the smaller, mobile labs commonly found in trailers, cars
and sheds.

Team members have found five Red P labs so far this year, compared to six
in all of 2001.

"We don't want to see those increase in large numbers," Minturn said.

Pastor advised not to read too much into the six-month meth lab numbers.

"It's probably too early for a trend," he said. "We certainly are not
declaring victory."

SIDEBAR: To report a possible meth lab

* In Pierce County, call 253-798-7537 or go online at www.piercesheriff.org.

* In Tacoma, call 253-475-2725.

* In King County, call 206-296-3311.