SHERIFF - METH USE IMPACTS USER'S ABILITY TO FUNCTION IN SOCIETY

Although Mohave County's unemployment rate is hovering at about 4
percent, many more county residents could have jobs if it weren't for
drug use, according to Sheriff Tom Sheahan. "A lot of people who use
meth (methamphetamine) cannot keep a job," Sheahan said. "They cannot
keep a job so they have to commit to a life of crime to survive."

There is no way to tell for certain how many meth and other drug
users there are in the county, but the Mohave County Sheriff's Office
made 577 drug arrests last year and the Mohave Area General Narcotics
Enforcement Team made an additional 408. Of the 408 MAGNET arrests
212 were meth-related. Most of the meth sold locally used to be made
in local meth labs, but that has changed and the sheriff is not
raiding near as many meth labs.

"It was one a week, 50 to 60 a year. Now that the product is coming
in from Mexico we may do 15 or 20 a year," Sheahan said. "Because of
our porous borders it is much cheaper to produce methamphetamine in
Mexico than it is in the United States, especially with many counties
banning ephedrine. Most of the larger shipments that have been taken
down lately in Arizona have been Mexican and have been in the
possession of illegal immigrants transporting it. We're having an
impact here in the county. One of the larger meth captures was in the
Lake Havasu City area and the majority of people involved in it were
illegal immigrants.

"If the federal government ever decided to do something about our
porous borders it will have a huge impact on meth here."

Not only does meth use have a negative effect by reducing the
workforce, it creates other problems that cost businesses a lot of
time, money and effort. Those are crimes committed by meth users that
prove costly to businesses.

"We have a large percentage of women who are in jail directly or
indirectly (from meth use) for credit card theft, fraud, where they
buy something over the Internet and try to pawn it, property crimes
and identity theft," Sheahan said. "We've had quite a bit of an
increase in that in the last couple years."

Sheahan isn't just enforcing the law when it comes to meth, he's
taking an active approach to campaigning against it. The sheriff's
office has printed a poster that it is asking every business in the
county to put up. It features before and after photos of four meth
users to help business owners identify addicts.

There are also community outreach programs.

"It's probably the major issue that we deal with. The sheriff's
office teaches the DARE program, Drug Abuse Resistance through
Education," Sheahan said. "We have a drug court to work on these
issues from enforcement and punishment to how to rehabilitate someone
out of this way of life and into a productive citizen. Some people
need treatment. They need help."

The drug is also a burden on the taxpayers because a majority of
inmates in the county jail are there either directly or indirectly
due to drugs.

"Not only here, but throughout the nation, out of the inmates that we
book into our jail, either directly or indirectly because of drug use."

The sheriff's office non-emergency phone number is 928-753-2141.