[GeoStL] Re: In todays Post dispatch
- From: "Barramus" <barramus@xxxxxxx>
- To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 20:21:24 -0600
I am very suprised that none of of have stumbled across a meth lab.
Barramus
twitch, twitch
----- Original Message -----
From: GC-RGS
To: GC-maillist
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 7:55 PM
Subject: [GeoStL] In todays Post dispatch
This article was in todays Post and is about meth labs and raids since
Jefferson and Franklin counties lead the nation in meth labs. Pay special
attention to the 2nd paragraph below. Now that they are hiding caches of meth
supplies in the woods, this may cause a concern with the authorities. I hope
not but I sure wouldn't want to be roaming in the woods looking for a GC while
the bad guys are looking for their caches. Or the police are staking out a meth
cache while we are looking for one of ours.
Rich
Number of meth raids is increasing in Missouri
By Matthew Hathaway
Of The Post-Dispatch
Missouri's methamphetamine problem is growing, and police, in an escalating
battle against the illegal drug, have uncovered more than 200 meth labs this
year in Jefferson and Franklin counties, according to state crime statistics.
Missouri surpassed California last year to lead the nation with 2,130 raids
on drug labs or discoveries of ingredient caches and meth-related dumps.
This year, a county-by-county breakdown by the Missouri Highway Patrol shows
the state already had reached 2,100 raids through September. And Detective
James Jones, the head of the Jefferson County drug task force, said last week
that his county alone had raided more than 30 labs since the Highway Patrol
compiled those statewide figures.
For years, the drug has been associated primarily with the Ozarks, and Jasper
County in southwest Missouri still leads this year's count with 136 meth raids
and seizures through the end of September. But Jefferson County finished second
with 115 cases, and Franklin County wasn't far behind with 112 meth-related
incidents in the same period.
Figures weren't as high in other St. Louis-area counties. The Highway Patrol
says there were 44 raids and seizures in St. Louis County, 39 in Lincoln
County, 15 in St. Charles County and four in St. Louis.
The Illinois State Police have not tallied meth raids and seizures for this
year, but an official said that police had found 666 labs and dumps last year.
State Police report that last year, 37 labs had been raided in Madison County,
four in St. Clair County and three in Monroe County.
David Jacobson, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Washington, said the numbers might not be as alarming as they appear.
Most meth is made in California's so-called superlabs, which can make as much
as 10 pounds of the drug in an eight-hour period. Jacobson said that Missouri
labs tended to be much smaller operations based in a kitchen, garage or
automobile and that these labs were capable of producing only a few ounces of
the drug.
"Unfortunately, no matter how crude and small a lab is, it's still a lab," he
said. "It still poses a serious threat to the environment, to law enforcement
and to the community."
Jacobson said that in some ways, the diffuse nature of meth manufacturing in
Missouri made it harder to police than large-scale marijuana or cocaine
distribution. He said the federal agency had responded by training police
officers throughout the state in meth investigation and interdiction techniques.
Jones, the Jefferson County drug investigator, said that training was one
reason the county has raided more labs this year.
"The question we're trying to answer across the state is whether meth is
getting this much bigger or are we catching more (drug) cooks," Jones said. "It
could be both, but I think the numbers are mainly up because of better
cooperation between agencies and increased public awareness."
Corp. Jason J. Grellner, the head of Franklin County's three-member narcotics
squad, cites another factor. "It's a pyramid scheme," Grellner said. "When
people cook meth, they aren't alone. Each cook teaches two or three other
people and, eventually, those people start making the drug and teach two or
three others."
The only way to counter that growth, he said, was to go after the drug's
chemical precursors, which include ingredients such as over-the-counter cold
pills, ether and anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer usually stolen from farmers.
Grellner said "there is no end in sight" until ephedrine and pseudoephedrine,
the ingredients extracted from cold pills, are made a "Schedule 5" narcotic.
That designation wouldn't require prescriptions but would make retailers keep
the medicine behind counters and sell it only to customers who present
identification.
A recovering addict who worked as a lookout for meth labs in Jefferson County
said that Missouri's meth problem was bigger than most people and many police
officers realized. He thinks others are getting started on meth for the same
reason he did: It's less expensive than crack cocaine, and the high lasts days
instead of hours.
"It doesn't seem to eat your money up like other drugs," said the 31-year-old
addict, who is from De Soto but now is living in a residential treatment house.
(Patients are asked not to identify themselves to reporters.) "But you find out
that's a lie. It will take every penny you have and everything you own."
Another meth addict at the facility said that many users of the drug defied
stereotypes. She said that people unfamiliar with the symptoms of meth
addiction didn't recognize the meth addicts they saw every day and that, as a
result, they didn't realize just how big the problem was.
"You can see these people everyday at ... the grocery store, but all you'll
see is someone twitching or making funny neck and hand movements," she said.
"But it's recognizable to a user."
Steven Huss, director of Comtrea, Jefferson County's mental health agency,
said that for the first time, more people were coming to the agency for help
with drug addiction than alcoholism or mental illness. Huss said that focusing
on meth interdiction could be counterproductive because addicts switched to
different drugs.
Although drug-addiction counselors and meth addicts in Jefferson County say
that use of the drug is high in Jefferson County, Jones said that he didn't
think Jefferson County had a much bigger problem than St. Louis or St. Charles
counties.
"I think the biggest difference is that we have a group of officers that's
focused almost entirely on meth," Jones said. "And like anything, the more
often you do something, the better you get. We're getting very good at finding
labs."
Reporter Matthew Hathaway:
E-mail: mhathaway@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 636-931-1020
Published in Metro on Monday, November 4, 2002.
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