METH HIT EARLY IN WOOD

Police Describe Effort To Fight Drug Labs

When methamphetamine hit West Virginia about six years ago, the first place
it took hold was Wood County. At the height of the problem, police there
took down 57 labs in one year.

Meth, a drug made by isolating the active ingredient in pseudoephedrine
through a series of volatile chemical procedures, had been crossing the
nation since the 1960s. But when people started cooking "crank" in the
Parkersburg area, it was seen as a totally new phenomenon.

"We were completely blindsided by it," Sgt. S.A. Hull of the Parkersburg
State Police detachment said. "We were sort of in the situation that
Kanawha and Putnam counties are in now. At least they know what they're
looking for. When we first saw it, we didn't even know what it was."

Capt. Rick Woodyard, who has worked as a police officer in Wood County for
years and is a ranking member of the Parkersburg Violent Crime & Narcotics
Task Force, said they busted their first lab in 1998.

By 2002, they sometimes were busting three a week in cars and homes.

When lab after lab kept springing up and police learned a new, easily made
drug had hit the streets, they contacted the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Charleston.

After getting some federal guidance, police began busting more labs because
officers had been trained on what to look for. Before they knew what they
were dealing with, Woodyard said a road patrol officer might stop someone
or respond to a 911 call, and the chemicals used to make the drug would be
in plain view, but no arrests would be made.

As a result of the increased emphasis on meth, Hull, who also works on the
task force, said they traced the problem to a group of meth cooks who moved
to Wood County from California. Police eventually arrested members of the
group, but before they were able to get them in custody, they managed to
pass on their technique.

"We caught them, but they taught a couple of people, who taught a couple of
people, who taught a couple of people," Hull said. "It just snowballed from
there."

That snowball effect took hold of the region, and in 2002, police busted 57
labs.

Today, the problem has been substantially reduced. In 2003, 20 labs were
taken down. Through the first four months of 2004, six labs have been found.

Woodyard said the area covered by his officers -- which includes Jackson,
Pleasants, Richie, Roane, Wirt and Wood counties -- is one of the few areas
of the country to beat back meth once it established a foothold.

He credited several initiatives for helping combat the problem, namely a
vigilant law enforcement community, but the problem decreased dramatically
after the officers learned much of the meth-making supplies were coming
from one place.

In the Kanawha Valley, police think most of the meth is being produced is
done by people who buy their materials at department stores, hardware
stores and pharmacies.

A joint investigation involving the drug unit, State Police and DEA
revealed that a lab in Columbus, Ohio, supplied most of the cooks in the
Wood County area with their materials.