METH CRIMES IN PEKIN DROP

PEKIN - In terms of methamphetamine, Pekin seems to be following a
national trend.

In 1999, the Pekin Police Department confronted its first two meth
manufacturing incidents in Pekin. In 2002, they dealt with 40.

On Monday, the Pekin Daily Times asked Deputy Chief Ted Miller of
the Pekin Police Department if the department has had to fight
meth-related crimes as often as they had in 2004 and 2005.

"Absolutely not," said Miller. "We have noted a decrease. We are not
running into labs like we used to."

But, Miller said, the apparent decrease of meth labs does not mean
they have disappeared. "(Meth labs are) a little more rare than what
we've experienced in the past."

The deputy chief credits the decline in meth-related crime to
Operation Rattlesnake, which operates from the Pekin Police
Department. Operation Rattlesnake is a task force made up of Pekin
police officers, agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, Tazewell County sheriff's deputies, Illinois State
troopers and federal prosecutors.

Miller said new legislation also helps keep meth precursors
difficult to obtain.

But Miller warned that drug trends are cyclical. "It certainly
doesn't mean overall drug use is on decline," Miller said of the
drop in meth-relate crime. "It doesn't mean the drug of choice today
will be the drug of choice tomorrow. There's always something new
that rears its ugly head."

When asked if meth-related emergency room visits have dropped since
2005, Pat Vandeschraaf, a nurse from Pekin Hospital's Emergency Room
said, "Yes, ER visits have dropped drastically since pseudoephedrine
has been put behind the counter at the stores."

Tazewell County State's Attorney Stewart Umholtz declined to comment
for this story. But back in December 2005, when Umholtz announced
his run for Illinois' Attorney General, he spoke to
reporters regarding Tazewell County's meth problems.

At that time, the Daily Times reported Umholtz said Tazewell County
"had a caseload that was literally exploding" several years ago,
referring to the time a meth lab blew up an apartment building in Pekin.

Umholtz told reporters that after the creation of the Operation
Rattlesnake task force, the number of meth cases in Tazewell County
fell dramatically.

Chief Deputy Dick Ganschow of the Tazewell County Sheriff's
Department said the county has seen a noticeable decline. "We used
to routinely come across labs, whether they were mobile labs in
vehicles or labs in people's houses," Ganschow said. "Those kinds of
things have really slowed down dramatically in the past year or so,
ever since that task force took hold and they started arresting people."

Ganschow also credits legislators for making it harder to obtain
meth precursors. "They really put a serious dent in the local
supply," Ganschow said.

The problem is not yet solved, Ganschow suggested. He said the meth
trade could be much more organized, and it could be going out of the country.

"We may have to fight it on a whole different level," he said.