CONGRESSMEN EXAMINE KANSAS METH PROBLEMS

Salina -- Kansas faces increased methamphetamine production and law enforcement officials need all the help they can get to fight the problem, a congressional subcommittee was told Tuesday.

Among those speaking at the U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee field hearing was Larry Welch, Kansas Bureau of Investigation director. He said federal grant money pays for eight of the 31 KBI agents assigned to narcotics.

"We have been getting a lot of assistance from Washington. As much as anything, the congressmen wanted to see what we were doing with the money," Welch said after the hearing.

He said the KBI will fill seven or eight agent positions soon, and added the KBI needs four more chemists in its laboratories because of the increased number of meth cases.

"It is methamphetamine-driven. It's a phenomenon," Welch said. "More money and help is needed from Washington."

The KBI says 511 meth labs were seized last year, compared with four in 1994. In the first six months this year, KBI officials seized 317 labs and predicted the number would reach 732 this year. Kansas ranks third nationally in methamphetamine production.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, who invited the subcommittee to his 1st District office, said that law officials are overwhelmed by meth cases. "We have taxed the resources of local law enforcement to the maximum," the Republican congressman said. "The ability to fight this war is going to depend on additional resources from the state and federal government."

During the hearing, Moran examined a large plastic bag of meth seized by police officers. He said officials told him it had a street value of up to $50,000.

"People think drugs aren't a problem in this state, and we think we are immune because we are rural," Moran said. "But the problem occurs because we are rural."