MISSOURI METH USE, PRODUCTION AT 'CRISIS LEVELS'

ST. LOUIS -- For the second year in a row, Missouri led the nation in the
number of meth raids and seizures, with meth use and production at "crisis
levels" in the state, observers said.

Last year, more than one out of every six meth labs in the country were
found in Missouri, where police recorded 2,725 raids and seizures,
according to federal and state figures released Tuesday. That's a 28
percent increase over 2001 numbers and widens the gap between Missouri and
the rest of the country.

Where once the highly addictive drug was concentrated in remote areas of
the Ozarks, production now is spreading east to Franklin and Jefferson
outside St. Louis.

"There's way more of this stuff being made, and there's way more people
taking meth," said Detective Jason Grellner, head of a three-man narcotics
unit in the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. "It's going to keep
increasing until it reaches a point of saturation, and no one knows when
that will be."

Grellner said meth use and production are "at crisis levels" in the state.

Production and use are still high in the Ozarks, and Jasper County in
southwest Missouri led the state with 178 meth raids and seizures last
year. Franklin County ranked second with 152 raids and seizures last year,
up from 67 in 2001, and Jefferson County was third with 148 last year, up
from 88 in 2001.

Meth is a powerful stimulant that can be smoked, injected, snorted or
consumed in pill form. The drug is manufactured in makeshift labs using
pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in most cold pills, and other
ingredients such as the farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia or red
phosphorous, which is found in flares and matches.

Most meth cooks are addicted to the drug, which can make users paranoid and
prone to violence. In Salem, a suspected meth cook was accused in a killing
spree that left a sheriff's deputy and two others dead.

"Normally, when we take down a lab, we find a firearm, usually a stolen
firearm," said Jefferson County Sheriff Oliver "Glenn" Boyer. "You combine
the paranoia caused by meth, a firearm and a law enforcement officer
knocking on the door, and you've got a serious problem."

More than 500 Missouri officers have completed intensive training in how to
recognize labs, investigate meth dealers and safely handle the hazardous
materials used to make the drug. But despite aggressive policing, "they
find a way around us," said Capt. Ron Replogle, who heads the Missouri
Highway Patrol's division of drug and crime control, which coordinates
Missouri's war on meth.

Sgt. Mike Cooper, who runs narcotics investigations for the Highway Patrol
in southwest Missouri, has taken down some of the biggest meth labs in
Missouri, but he still can't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

"We don't have time to do anything else," Cooper said. "The rural
jurisdictions out here are inundated with crime, and almost all of it
revolves around methamphetamine."

Cooper has watched meth spread in Missouri, from Kansas City to the
southwest and, in recent years, to the St. Louis area. He said that
although the St. Louis drug scene is still dominated by cocaine and heroin,
St. Louisans should expect meth use to grow quickly now that is has a
foothold in Franklin and Jefferson counties.