Local meth numbers drop

The numbers are both up and down as far as methamphetamine is concerned.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released the latest state and county totals for meth incidents. Missouri is No. 1 in the nation with 1,285 total incidents, but the figures for Adair County are down to just one from a high of 60 in 2003.

Sergeant Brent Bernhardt, public information and education officer for the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop B, said the top five Missouri counties for meth production are Jefferson, St. Charles, St. Francis, Lincoln and Franklin, all of which are near the St. Louis area.

"Typically, your bigger cities such as [the] St. Louis area ... [and] Kansas City, those have been the biggest areas where [the] methamphetamine problem has existed, but the rural areas are affected, too," he said.

Bernhardt said big cities usually have the most problems simply because of the higher population density.

"However, ... in virtually every county there's a drug problem in the fact that if you've got one person that's abusing drugs, that's a problem," he said. "It's kind of like the old analogy - one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. One person can influence someone else to do [drugs]."

Bernhardt said law enforcement agencies always are on guard against drugs, but they also need support from the community.

"It's not just a law enforcement problem, it's a community problem, and we all need to get involved with that," he said.

Bernhardt said that overall, meth incident totals in Missouri have dropped substantially during the past five years because of recent state laws regulating the purchase of pseudoephedrine - a key item

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for making meth. As of 2005, all pharmacies are required to keep a record of who buys pseudoephedrine and when and how often they buy it.

At the moment, the legal permissible amount of pseudoephedrine consumers may buy is less than nine grams - the equivalent of about four packages - every 30 days, Bernhardt said.

However, Bernhardt said a new trend that has appeared is a practice known as "smurfing" - meth producers stock up on pseudoephedrine by going from one pharmacy to another.

"Although we do check on that, it's one of those things that there are some ways that they have been able to get the product to make meth," he said.

Bernhardt said there are a variety of ways the patrol investigates smurfing, including the use of undercover officers and calling on the help of local drug task forces.

Bernhardt said meth incidents are totaled from lab seizures and investigations, and that figures are reported to both highway patrol and the Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area office.

Kirksville Police Chief Jim Hughes said another reason for the reduction of meth incidents in Adair County has been an intense collaborative effort among the community, local law enforcement, the Adair County drug court and other groups.

"Three, 4 1/2 years ago ... that's when the community came together and said 'enough's enough, we're not going to tolerate this any more, [and] if we're going to be known for something, let's not let it be meth,'" he said.

Hughes also said that five years ago, people could drive along country roads in the area and easily spot abandoned meth paraphernalia.

"That's almost unheard of at the present moment," he said.

Hughes said all parties involved with the meth eradication effort know that there still is work to be done.

"[Fighting meth] requires continuous vigilance on the part of the entire community," he said. "We've watched these trends very carefully."

Doing otherwise would be a disservice to everyone who has been a part of the effort against meth, he added.

Hughes said lately local law enforcement has been actively monitoring pseudoephedrine logs at local pharmacies. He added that the pseudoephedrine laws have been useful in reducing meth incidents, although local law enforcement agencies started achieving success before the new regulations went into effect.

"We were and would have continued to be successful without the laws just because ... of the community-wide effort, but the new laws have certainly helped and have made the successes greater than they would have been otherwise," Hughes said.

Nick Cook, project coordinator for the Adair County Drug Coalition, said only having one meth-related incident in the area is cause to celebrate.

"It's testament to the work that's been done as far as reducing meth lab incidents in Adair County," he said of the sharp decrease.

Now that meth has subsided in the county, the coalition has been free to take on other drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, in its prevention and education efforts, Cook said. However, that does not mean the group has completely dropped the issue.

"We still try to give presentations on meth and try to keep people aware of meth," he said. "It still is a little bit of a problem, but not quite as big [of] a problem in the past."

Cook said the coalition also still is receiving money from the $100,000 federal Drug Free Community grant it received in 2004 and soon will apply for a fifth year of funding. The group uses the grant for targeting drug usage in the area and educating adults about illegal substances, he added.

Hy-Vee pharmacy manager Jim Brittain said sales of pseudoephedrine are down at the moment.

"[It's] done a great job," he said of the legislation regulating sales.

Customers who buy products containing pseudoephedrine are required to produce photo identification and sign a log, among other precautions, Brittain added. He said local law enforcement agencies then monitor purchase patterns to determine suspicious behavior characteristic of meth producers.