LAW OFFICERS CALL METH TOP PROBLEM

S.C. Officials Agree With Others Across U.S. Who Say Drug Is Wreaking Havoc

Local officials from across the country declared methamphetamine the
nation's leading law-enforcement scourge Tuesday, blaming it for
crowding jails and fueling theft and violence, as well as social
welfare problems.

Officials from the National Association of Counties, releasing
results from a survey of 500 local authorities nationwide, argued
that Washington's focus on terrorism and homeland security had
diverted money and attention from the meth problem in the states.

They pleaded with lawmakers to restore financing for an $804 million
drug-fighting program that the group said was proposed for
elimination in the 2006 federal budget, and said the Bush
administration had focused its drug-fighting efforts too much on
marijuana and not enough on meth.

Meth is cheap and easy to make using chemicals commonly found in cold
medicine or on farms, and makeshift production labs have particularly
devastated rural areas. The ingredients are highly toxic and
flammable, and the drug, which is smoked, inhaled or injected, is
extremely addictive.

Of 500 law-enforcement agencies in 45 states that responded to the
survey, 87 percent reported increases in meth-related arrests in the
past three years, and 62 percent reported increases in lab seizures.
Fifty-eight percent said meth was their largest drug problem.

In the Midlands of South Carolina, sheriff's offices agreed that meth
is a growing problem.

In Richland and Kershaw counties, the numbers remain small — fewer
than 10 cases this year in Richland and four seized labs in Kershaw.
But Lexington County has seen a dramatic rise in recent years.

Lexington narcotics agents have seized 36 meth labs so far this year,
compared with 45 in all of 2004, Maj. John Allard said. The first
such lab was discovered in 2001.

Nationwide, meth arrests also have swamped other county-level
agencies that help care for children whose parents have become
addicted and that clean up toxic chemicals left behind by meth cookers.

The report comes soon after the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy restated its stance that marijuana remains the
nation's most substantial drug problem. Federal estimates show there
are 15 million marijuana users, compared with the 1 million who might use meth.

Dave Murray, a policy analyst for the White House, said he understood
that the meth problem moving through the nation was serious and
substantial. But he disagreed that it had become epidemic.

This thing is burning, and because it's burning, we're going to put
it out," he said. "But we can't turn our back on other threats."