PORTABLE LAB HELPS JACKSON CO. OFFICERS BATTLE METH

PASCAGOULA - A new portable lab equipped to help narcotics officers deal
with the dangerous chemicals involved in the illegal manufacture of
methamphetamine came in handy Saturday.

Officers with the Jackson County Narcotics Task Force were trying to deal
with lithium in the rain, and lithium and water don't mix well, they said
Tuesday as they helped Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd show off equipment
purchased with federal grant money.

The meth was being produced in a trailer in the Franklin Creek community.
The officers raided the lab and made arrests, but had to deal with the
chemicals during a hard rain.

"Some of the chemicals will explode with water," said one officer. "We used
the (sheriff's new) trailer to keep the water off the chemicals."

The county's portable lab in a trailer cost about $50,000 and joins a pool
of meth-fighting equipment that includes seven vehicles and six all-terrain
vehicles.

Byrd's department has received $650,000 in grants to fight meth and expects
to get $250,000 next year.

"This is something we've worked hard for because we realized we had a
problem in Jackson County," Byrd said.

Stopping and dismantling a meth lab is dangerous and labor intensive, but
Jackson County is cleaning up more than any area from Pensacola to New
Orleans, Byrd said recently.

Louie Miller, commander of the county Narcotics Task Force, said $130,000
of the grant money has gone to pay for overtime so that the county and its
four cities don't have to bear that cost.

Miller said it takes three officers eight to 12 hours on the scene to deal
with one meth lab. Cleanup is handled by a contractor with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

The Task Force has seven officers at a time, but 23 deputies and police
officers in Jackson County have been trained to deal with meth labs. The
Task Force is made up of officers from the Sheriff's Department and cities
in Jackson County.

The county has handled 411 meth-related cases since 2000, 61 since October.
Miller said they have found the labs in every community. "There's not an
area that hasn't been touched."

And he said that 60 to 70 percent of the task force's cases are meth-related.

But the portable lab trailer is a bright spot for the men dealing with the
chemicals. It is stocked with lights, fans, sample bottles, breathing
packs, extra oxygen, water, gloves, protective suits, air samples and eye
wash stations.

And it's designed to keep them safer.