METH WAR: LITTLE HEADWAY

Number of Labs Seized in Missouri Remains High

The number of methamphetamine labs seized in Missouri over the first
six months of 2004 indicates no letup in the battle between
law-enforcement officers and the manufacturers of the highly addictive
drug.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported in August that 1,460
manufacturing operations and dump sites were found across the state
from Jan. 1 through June 30. A total of 2,860 operations and dump
sites were reported for all of 2003.

"If you compare to last year, the number of labs was a little higher
in the first six months of 2003 than it was for the first six months
of 2004," said Capt. Ron Replogle, commander of the state patrol's
Drug and Crime Control Division.

"In the second six months of last year, the number of labs declined a
bit, and if it does the same thing this year, we could hold steady.
But it's hard to say what will happen in the next six months."

New law sought

Replogle said the patrol plans to lobby legislators for a law similar
to one enacted this year in Oklahoma that is designed to limit the
supply of a major ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry on April 6 signed legislation that bans the
sale of pseudoephedrine tablets in stores without a licensed
pharmacist. The law does not affect the sale of pseudoephedrine in
capsule and liquid forms. The law requires the buyer to produce photo
identification and sign for the pseudoephedrine, which is an
ingredient in many over-the-counter cold medications.

Those found guilty of illegal sales of pseudoephedrine tablets can be
sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $1,000. The
law is designed to choke off meth manufacturers' supply of
pseudoephedrine, the drug's main ingredient.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation released numbers that it
says show that the law is having an effect.

Jessica Brown, bureau spokeswoman, said the number of cases handled by
OSBI laboratories since the enactment of the law is down. Brown said
that from April to July 2004, the OSBI labs handled materials from 190
clandestine labs, compared with 304 between April and July 2003.

Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs Control, said the new law makes getting
pseudoephedrine much more difficult for a meth cook, who typically
needs large quantities of the ingredient.

"We've said all along that if you control the pseudoephedrine, you can
control the meth production," Woodward said. "The stats are backing
that up."

Replogle said a similar law for Missouri has not been drafted, but he
expects it to mirror Oklahoma's law.

County numbers

After leading the state in 2001 and 2002 in the number of meth
operations found, Jasper County was knocked off that perch last year
by Jefferson County, south of St. Louis. Jefferson County authorities
reported 161 meth labs or dump sites in 2003, compared with 142 in
Jasper County.

In the first six months of this year, Jasper County was third in the
state with 62 meth operations, trailing Jefferson County with 147 and
Franklin County, west of Jefferson County, with 65.

Replogle said a new drug task force formed this past year has been
clamping down on the meth problem in the St. Louis area, contributing
to the upward swing there.

One sheriff in Southwest Missouri says the patrol's numbers, which are
used to help disburse grant money to combat meth production, may not
be accurate.

Sheriff Robert Evenson in McDonald County said he believes his
officers and the officers with the Southwest Missouri Drug Task Force,
which works in McDonald, Newton, Barry and Lawrence counties, raided
more than the 25 labs reported for the county in 2003 by the patrol.

"Maybe it's law enforcement's fault that we don't have set criteria
about what we report as a meth lab or dump site, but some agencies are
finding a can of Coleman fuel on the side of the road and reporting it
as a dump site," Evenson said. "I also understand that if the patrol
receives a report that has a mistake, they throw it away without
calling the reporting department and don't count it."

Replogle said the patrol does not throw away reports.

"If a report is incomplete, or we find a mistake, we'll either send it
back to the reporting agency or call them," he said. "These reports
are important to us, not only for reporting purposes but also for the
intelligence we can gather from them."

Barton County numbers low

Barton County stands out in the patrol's statistics, with just one
meth lab or dump site reported there in three years, despite its
proximity to Jasper County.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Shannon Higgins said the level of meth production
in the county may be higher than that number reflects. Higgins said
the low number of discoveries may have more to do with the relatively
few officers the Sheriff's Department has patrolling the largely rural
600 square miles of Barton County than anything else.

Higgins said deputies seized their first meth lab of 2004 on Aug. 30
at a farm near Jasper.

Brian E. Neher, 27, was arrested in the raid and charged with
possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute,
possession of a meth precursor, possession of chemicals with the
intent to manufacture a controlled substance, and use of drug
paraphernalia.

Higgins said Barton County officers face a somewhat different
meth-related problem than some of their law-enforcement counterparts
in other counties. The theft of anhydrous ammonia, a common ingredient
in meth production, from farms has been a persistent problem in Barton
County, with 300 people convicted of such thefts in the county since
1997.

The thieves often take it out of the county to meth operations
elsewhere, Higgins said.

"Most of the farms around Barton County have large fixed tanks of
anhydrous ammonia, and the chemical is shipped in bulk and used as
fertilizer," Higgins said. "We actively patrol at least nine large
bulk tanks and a number of smaller tanks. A majority of the people we
arrest stealing anhydrous ammonia are from places like Springfield or
Arkansas."