ENFORCEMENT NEEDED TO CHECK SPREAD OF METH LABS

WAUKESHA - Methamphetamine labs are sprouting rapidly in Wisconsin, and the
nation's drug enforcement director says serious efforts are needed to check
the spread of the cheap and highly addictive drug.

Last year, law enforcement officials shut down 44 methamphetamine labs in
Wisconsin, a huge jump from the one lab that was closed in 1997, Asa
Hutchinson, director of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said
at a conference here Tuesday.

About 50 labs have already been busted this year in Wisconsin.

Surrounding states closed between 500 and 2,200 labs last year. That shows
that the drug could grow in popularity here, Hutchinson told police,
prosecutors and medical professionals at the conference on methamphetamine
and club drugs such as Ecstasy.

"It's moved from the West Coast eastward," he said at a news conference
after his speech at Waukesha County Technical College. "It has not totally
invaded Wisconsin yet."

Wisconsin started seeing methamphetamine, which is made with farm chemicals
that are easy to find in rural areas, in its northwestern counties in 1997
and 1998.

Wisconsin has placed more drug enforcement agents in northwestern
Wisconsin, which slowed the spread of meth labs, said State Division of
Narcotics Administrator Johnnie Smith.

Tuesday's drug summit was the fifth and final session to be held around the
state to teach local law enforcement how to detect methamphetamine labs in
their areas.

Smith urged all present to look for not only methamphetamine but also club
drugs, such as Ecstasy and gamma-hydroxybutyrate, the so-called date-rape drug.

Methamphetamine labs have been discovered in the past 18 months in Kenosha,
Janesville and Beloit - but none in Milwaukee or Waukesha counties, said
Bob Sloey, director of operations for the state Department of Justice's
Division of Narcotics Enforcement. A lab in Dane County was discovered when
it literally exploded, Sloey said. No one was injured.

Methamphetamine, often called poor man's cocaine, crank, ice, chalk, glass
or yaba, is a potentially deadly mix of cleaning solvents and farm
fertilizers, which users often siphon from ammonia tanks on farms.

The ingredients are cooked into a powder that can be smoked, injected,
snorted or swallowed. The drug creates a pleasurable high but can cause
paranoia, mood swings and aggressive behavior.

Club drugs like Ecstasy can cause hypothermia, muscle breakdown, seizures,
strokes, brain damage and death.

Hutchinson said that a recent medical study showed a possible connection
between Ecstasy and Parkinson's disease.

Hutchinson also cited national efforts to curtail drug supplies, including
the arrests last month of 115 people in 84 cities who were selling "date
rape" drugs on the Internet.

"We have made progress," he said.