Pubdate: Tue, 06 Sep 2005
Source: Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL)
Copyright: 2005 Southern Illinoisan
Contact:  http://www.TheSouthern.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1430
Author: Andrea Hahn
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH RESPONSE TEAM GETTING AHEAD OF PROBLEM

DU QUOIN - A few months into service, the region's new Meth Response Team 
appears to be producing results.

The three people who were arrested in Carbondale last Wednesday and charged 
with possession of meth-manufacturing chemicals joined a growing list of 
arrests made by the MRT, which was commissioned by the Illinios State Police.

Lt. Steve Shields, who heads up the Du Quoin-based MRT investigative zone, 
said the special unit is doing what it was created to do - get ahead of the 
region's methamphetamine problem.

Since the team began its effort on May 15, approximately one-third of the 
arrests they have made have been for possession of meth precursors - meth 
ingredients before they become meth, he said.

"There were so many (meth labs and dump sites) we were responding to the 
fire after the fire," he said. "Now we are focusing on the cookers - We 
want to target these guys before they cook, before they put the toxins out 
there, before they endanger children."

Shields said the MRT in Du Quoin is made up of 12 team members who work all 
shifts.

"Normally, a lot of detectives work pretty standard shifts," he said. "We 
might be out there at 3 a.m."

The MRTs are aligned with the region's other drug enforcement agencies, 
such as the Southern Illinois Enforcement Group and the Southern Illinois 
Drug Task Force. What distinguishes the MRTs from their parners is the 
focus on the single drug - meth.

"I've been a police officer for more than 20 years and I've never seen an 
agency commit to just one drug," Sheilds said.

"I can take two officers and arrest a crack-head," he said. "It takes four 
to clean a lab. If there is an arrest, that's another two, so that's six 
officers."

Shields said several new laws enacted in Illinois have made fighting meth 
easier. Notably, he said, legislative regulation of ingredients commonly 
used in meth manufacture - notably ephedrine and pseudoephedrine (PSE) - 
have made it easier to prosecute meth offenders.

A recent call to arms by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to make those laws 
even stronger in light of stronger laws passed by states bordering Illinois 
is echoed in Shields observations about out-of-state residents arrested in 
Illinois.

"We are seeing a few arrests coming from out-of-state," he said. "One of 
the reasons is that the laws are stricter (about buying ephedrine and PSE) 
in Missouri and Iowa."

Shields said other crimes that tend to accompany meth use - including 
weapons offenses, domestic violence and child abuse or neglect, theft and 
burglary - make it even more imperative to get the drug under control.

"The bad guys know we're looking at them," he said, referring to the 
notorious paranoia of meth users. "And we are looking at them, and we are 
arresting them."
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman