SHERIFFS IN RURAL MISSOURI FIGHT A LOSING BATTLE WITH METH PRODUCERS

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. - Every law enforcement agent in Missouri's Ozarks can tell
stories about methamphetamine. In Pulaski County, they have more than their
share.

There's the local woman who stored acid -- needed to cook the drug -- in her
freezer. Or the man who, days after badly burning his hands and face in a
house fire he started while making the drug, had five pounds of iodine
delivered by mail.

Far from extraordinary, these stories of hopeless addicts are becoming
increasingly common in rural Missouri, where authorities, despite their best
efforts, do not believe they are winning the war on the crude, powerful
stimulant better known as meth.

"We're losing," Brad Ford, a Pulaski County narcotics investigator, says
matter-of-factly.

They find no cause for celebration in new federal statistics, released this
month, that showed meth arrests in Missouri declined in 2002 -- the first
time that has happened since authorities began tracking the drug in 1995.

"As much as we find, there's so much more out there that we don't find,"
Ford says.

Missouri certainly isn't shedding its reputation as a haven for meth. Last
year's 652 seized labs were down from the 2001 tally of 675, but second only
to California among the 50 states, according to the National Clandestine
Laboratory Database. Kansas had 311 seized labs, which ranked ninth.

The problem is perhaps most acute in south-central Missouri, where small
sheriff's departments struggle to keep up with desperate addicts and crafty
cooks. Pulaski County is especially vulnerable because it is bisected by
Interstate 44, a notorious drug pipeline through the Midwest.

Of the 60 persons in the Pulaski County Jail one night last month, 20 were
there for drug crimes.

"It's just the biggest problem we've got," says Sheriff J.T. Roberts. "We
have robberies, burglaries, murders, whatever -- it all revolves around
meth."

`We Can't Keep Up'

The Pulaski County sheriff's two-man narcotics team, established about five
years ago, patrols 551 square miles of rugged, lonely terrain -- nearly half
of which is covered by the Mark Twain National Forest, known to drug agents
as Sherwood Forest for meth-makers.

The investigators, Ford and Joe Vieira, typically work nights, where they
follow up on dozens of leads and often hike deep into the forest to stake
out sites. They work under cover and won't pose for pictures because they
know the meth-makers monitor their every move. One local biker bar has
posted Vieira's picture on a Web site with the description "narc."

Pulaski County's 44 total meth seizures -- including labs, chemicals,
equipment and dump sites -- were among the highest last year in the Ozarks.
By comparison, there were 56 seizures in Jackson County, which has 16 times
the population.

"It's a dent, but we can't keep up" Ford says. "They're getting better at
hiding from us."

Lately, he says, addicts have taken to cooking meth in abandoned
outbuildings of expansive farms or in their cars while driving. Cooks can
store ingredients and equipment in the backs of their cars -- mobile labs
that elude authorities, at least temporarily.

Vieira was injured last month when he cracked open the trunk of a suspect's
car. He was greeted with a burst of anhydrous ammonia fumes that reduced him
to coughing violently and nearly choking.

Roberts thinks meth is eclipsing other drugs in his county. In 2002, his
investigators seized about 1,000 marijuana plants. In a typical year, he
says, they would find about 5,000.

He describes a pervasive problem that mires people, often entire families,
in a cycle of addiction. Many who are jailed walk free on bond -- "probably
meth money," Roberts says, because one gram of the drug can fetch about
$100.

One Pulaski County man who was jailed last year posted $5,000 bond, then
nearly burned his house to the ground a few days later while cooking the
drug. The judge set bond at $10,000, but he posted it again, and some weeks
later was arrested in another county for shooting at a police officer. The
man now is serving a three-year prison sentence.

Roberts' own budget is more meager. The investigators do not have their own
cars and for several months have been borrowing vehicles from municipal
police and other agencies. Two jeeps are for sale from nearby Fort Leonard
Wood, Roberts says -- but "they're pretty beat-up" and, painted in military
colors, would be easy to spot.

Even so, Pulaski County is luckier than most. To the south is Texas County,
which had the second-most meth seizures last year in Missouri. Revenues
there are so strapped that the sheriff's department is down to just three
full-time deputies.

The lack of resources keeps law enforcement in the region from making any
serious headway in solving the problem, Roberts says.

"We push them over the county line, they just come back in," he says. "If
we're going to lick this thing, we're going to need some help."

Bills Pending

Missouri's law enforcement agents and elected officials recently won praise
for their anti-meth efforts from Asa Hutchinson, head of the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration.

At a November conference in Springfield, Hutchinson noted that Missouri had
more than 2,000 raids on meth sites last year, the most in the country, and
called the state a model for the nation in fighting the "Number One drug
problem in America."

Two bills pending in the state Senate aim to help local law enforcement keep
up the fight.

One would prohibit drugstore owners from selling medicines whose sole active
ingredient is a variant of ephedrine -- the starting point for meth, which
can be extracted from common over-the-counter cold medicines.

It would allow the over-the-counter sale of other medicines that contain
less ephedrine, but only two packages at a time.

Sen. Anita Yeckel, a St. Louis Republican who is co-sponsoring the bill,
said that it would help prevent theft of the medicines.

"To a certain degree it might make it harder for you and me to buy these
medicines when we're sick," Yeckel said. "But it will really make it more
restrictive for the meth-makers."

Another bill would establish within the state Department of Public Safety a
meth task force composed of county sheriffs. A fund would be created from
which sheriffs could draw for anti-meth initiatives.

Some rural sheriffs, including Roberts, worry about bureaucratic hurdles
should the state manage the fund. Then again, Roberts says, he could do with
a few thousand dollars in grant money.

"We could get another officer, we could buy them a car," he said. "We're
well-blessed with problems here -- there's a lot more we could do."

On the Web:

The drug sale bill is SB 433; the task force bill is SB 39. Bills are
available on the Internet at www.senate.state.mo.us .