METH SCOURGE

Problem Still Growing

Once again Oklahoma has made the top of one of those lists we'd sooner not
make at all. According to a recent published report, Oklahoma is one of the
nation's leaders in methamphetamine labs, arrests, addicts and cases.

This is not altogether new news. When more state and federal funds were
sought recently to address the meth problem, the general scope of the
problem was made clear. What isn't exactly clear is why meth production and
use keep growing and growing.

Statistics show that meth cases have increased more than 8,000 percent
since 1994. This shocking figure also surprised some state and local
law-enforcement officials, who had believed that new regulations regarding
the sale of precursor chemicals were making a dent in the problem.

One theory about the mushrooming of meth production and use holds that the
recipes for making the vile stuff now are easily obtained, especially via
the Internet. This theory is bolstered by the fact that the World Wide Web
got up and running at about the same time the latest meth craze took off,
in 1994.

But one puzzling aspect of the meth scourge is why it remains wildly
popular in places such as Oklahoma yet hasn't caught on in bigger cities.
The very fact that it is cheap might be why meth is so popular in a
relatively poor state such as Oklahoma.

There's also evidence that meth might just be a regional favorite. Meth
accounts for nearly 90 percent of all drug cases in the Midwest, according
to one crime report. Perhaps the rural nature of the Midwest, where
clandestine labs can be set up easily, is a factor.

According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma ranks in
the top five in almost every meth category. Oklahomans are 42 percent above
the national average in all age groups for meth use.

Most of us have never and will never even see meth, but it still costs us
all dearly. The average cost to clean up one meth lab is about $2,000. Last
year, the OSBI spent $1 million on meth clean-up. And the danger of a
sudden explosion from a meth lab is possible just about everywhere.

So stand by to shell out more tax dollars on this growing plague, which
shows no sign of abating -- unless some great minds can figure out how to
stop the flow of the stuff used to make it and the recipes for brewing it.