INCREASING QUANTITY OF SMALL METH LABS GIVES OFFICERS HEADACHES

The number of Washington labs set up to extract the cold-pill
ingredients used to make methamphetamines soared last year, a top
state drug enforcement official said Tuesday at the third annual Meth
Summit in Vancouver.

Police seized 222 of the extraction labs in 2002, up from 38 the
previous year, said Dave Rodriguez, director of the Northwest
High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The labs use chemicals to break
down cold capsules into ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, constituents of
the plant ephedra. Those chemicals are used to "cook" meth using the
red phosphorus method, the most popular method in Southwest Washington.

Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are flooding into Washington from Canada
as well, likely destined for "superlabs" in California that supply
about 70 percent of the meth sold in the United States, Rodriguez
said. Unlike the United States, Canada still allows the purchase of
mass quantities of cold pills.

As of Sept. 12, agents had seized a 387 pounds of ephedrine at the
Blaine border crossing this year, including 332 pounds confiscated in
a single bust Aug. 23, Rodriguez said. Agents seized 365 pounds of the
chemicals last year and just 82 pounds in 2001.

Four superlabs capable of manufacturing 10 pounds of meth at a time
are believed to be operating in Washington, two on the west side and
two on the east side, Rodriguez said. Drug agents believe those east
of the Cascades supply meth dealers in Eastern Washington, Idaho and
Montana.

Although seizures of labs where meth is cooked declined overall last
year, seizures of compact "Nazi method" labs, which can be carried in
a duffel bag, continued to climb. The Nazi method produces meth of
extreme purity.

Small labs that produce less than a pound of meth in a batch continue
to be a significant source of the drug, presenting a challenge to
local law enforcement agencies, Rodriguez said. "The problem is, we
have so many of them and it takes so much officer time to respond."

Washington reported the third-highest number of meth "incidents" last
year, behind Missouri and California. California outlaw bikers were
the first meth "cooks," and the drug spread north up the Interstate 5
corridor before moving east in recent years.

The numbers Rodriguez cited indicate that demand for the potent
stimulant is not abating.

Rodriguez predicted no change in the availability of meth in the near
future and said meth operations appear to be migrating to public lands
and rural areas, including Indian reservations. He said any decrease
in domestic production will likely be offset by an increase in imports
as long as demand is strong.

It was a downbeat message for the audience of 400 professionals who
gathered at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay.

Other speakers pointed to signs of progress.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen said Washington leads the nation in attacking its
meth problem through a coordinated effort involving professionals in
law enforcement, treatment, prevention, education and child welfare.

The designation of several Washington counties as part of a
High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area eligible for federal funding to
stem the drug trade "brought a higher focus and made the state more
aware of the problem," he said.

Two years ago Washington became one of the first states to organize a
statewide meth summit to battle the epidemic, and 37 of the state's 39
counties now have meth action teams representing diverse community
interests. Clark County's team was formed last year.

Several speakers described innovative approaches to dealing with the
human casualties of meth addiction.

Fabienne L. Brooks, chief of the King County Sheriff's Office criminal
investigation division, said her office is developing a
drug-endangered-children program to rescue neglected and abused
children found at meth lab and meth house sites. Modeled on a
successful California program, it depends on a close working
relationship between police and caseworkers.

In King County, 16 children have been taken into state custody at meth
sites in the past year and a half, Brooks said.

Richard Gebelein, a Delaware drug-court judge and vice chairman of the
National Association of Drug Court Professionals, said the drug-court
model, which provides a treatment alternative to incarceration, has
spread across the nation.

In 1994 there were just 14 drug courts in the U.S., Gebelein said. Now
there are more than 1,000, in every state and territory, and
drug-court graduates consistently have lower recidivism rates than
those who go to prison and are released on supervised probation.

Clark County's highly regarded drug court, started four years ago, had
graduated 50 of 260 participants as of June.

"But it's not dry statistics that keep drug-court officials going,"
Gebelein said. "It's the social benefit that comes from turning a
person in addiction into a person in recovery. We have to address the
problem, not punish the symptom."