METH TAKING HOLD IN STATE

Law Officials See Its Impact In Jails, Crime

WAUSAU - The latest illegal drug craze - the highly addictive
methamphetamine - has gripped one western Wisconsin county, where the
sheriff says his budget has skyrocketed because of it. And he's not alone.

"It is driving everything right now," St. Croix County Sheriff Dennis
Hillstead said. "Of the inmates, roughly 65 percent are in for either
meth or meth-related crimes. They are doing burglaries to get money
to buy meth."

In neighboring Polk County, where deputies have investigated users as
young as 11 years old, billboards have been erected, warning meth
dealers, manufacturers and users to stay away.

"It is creeping. You are over there by Wausau. It is coming your
way," Polk County Sheriff Tim Moore told The Associated Press.

La Crosse County Sheriff Michael Weissenberger, president of the
Wisconsin Sheriff's and Deputy Sheriff's Association, said the
methamphetamine problem is concentrated in northwest Wisconsin
because the drug is manufactured in rural labs and those counties are
close to markets in the Twin Cities.

The crime is adding pressure on crowded jails, he said, calling it
the worst drug in his 35 years in law enforcement.

"I have seen heroin and crack cocaine and PCB but meth is definitely
a nasty drug that I think is going to be forerunner of the majority
of our problems in the future, both for law enforcement and for
health agencies in the county," he said. "It is all made out of
chemicals, which makes it worse."

The drug is cheap to manufacture, creates a tremendous high initially
for users and "you always want to get that high again," making people
potential addicts for life, he said.

Last summer, Gov. Jim Doyle signed legislation restricting access to
cold medicines that contain a key ingredient to make methamphetamine
- - pseudoephedrine - in a move to fight against the drug.

Wisconsin law enforcement officials busted 56 meth labs last year,
compared with 90 in 2004 and eight in 1999, according to the state
Department of Justice.

The state Crime Laboratory processed 726 meth cases last year,
compared with 546 in 2004, the agency said.

Rural labs are being shut down in Wisconsin but now there is a
pipeline of suppliers from Mexico and other areas, law enforcement experts say.

Jennifer Michaelson, 25, of rural Balsam Lake, said she first used
meth as a teenager, in part because she was interested in dating a young man.

"I went over there one day and he and his friends were doing it. They
asked me if I wanted to do it. I gave in and said yes," she said.

In no time, Michaelson said, she and her new boyfriend were using
methamphetamine every day, and their lives spiraled downward -
financial troubles, violence in the relationship and isolation from
family members.

"It's poison," she said. "There is not any word that I could use to
describe how bad it is and how powerful it is."

She quit after a doctor told her that her newborn son tested positive
for methamphetamine, county social services workers took the baby and
she spent 60 days in an inpatient treatment center.

"The only thing I cared about in my life more than meth was that
little baby boy," Michaelson said. "I have been clean a little over two years."

In February, the governor announced a $250,000 grant to be used by 12
counties and one Indian tribe - the Western Wisconsin Methamphetamine
Action Consortium - to develop prevention and treatment techniques
for meth users.

Doyle said 289 people from those counties sought treatment for meth
problems in 2004. For the first six months of 2005, there were 223
admissions, he said.

Ralph Johansen, a member of the Polk County Board and the county's
meth drug task force, estimates the methamphetamine problem costs his
county up to $7 million a year, mostly for law enforcement and social services.

"It's the scourge," he said.

Two years ago, St. Croix County added 48 beds to its jail, costing
$1.7 million. Just eight years ago, the jail rented out beds for
prisoners from other counties, Hillstead said.

"Our medical costs in jail have gone from $80,000 a year to pretty
close to $300,000," he said. "We have had to go to a full-time nurse
at jail because of the physical problems that meth brings."

In a recent six-week span, 35 burglaries in Polk County were linked
mostly to meth users, Sheriff Moore said. It's believed the goods,
including televisions and guns, were traded within hours for meth.

In the last two to three years, his agency has investigated a murder,
a suicide and a drowning, all related to methamphetamine, he said.

The suicide came after a 12-hour standoff with police, the sheriff
said. The medical examiner believed that the victim was using
methamphetamine during the confrontation.

Sheriff's Lt. Mike Knoll, administrator for the Pierce County jail,
said his 29-bed jail has been overcrowded for years and the meth
problem just adds pressure and brings in prisoners with more serious
medical problems.

"We are seeing adults with teeth falling out, people with sores on
their body," he said. "Our fear is this is the harbinger of things to come."

Jason Olsen, the father of Michaelson's baby and a recovering meth
addict, too, said it won't be easy to eliminate the meth problem.

"When one guy is gone there is two to replace him because you can
make so much money on it," he said. "It is like trying to stop a
common cold that spreads once it gets going."

METH TROUBLE

Home-brewed drug gaining foothold:

. THE PROBLEM: Highly addictive methamphetamine is a growing concern
in some western Wisconsin counties.

. THE IMPACT: Use of the drug is putting pressure on already crowded
jails and increasing social services costs.

. THE FORMER USER: "There is not any word that I could use to
describe how bad it is and how powerful it is," said Jennifer
Michaelson, 25, of rural Balsam Lake.