Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jun 2006
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2006 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/feedback/form.php?opinion=1
Website: http://www.startribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Jim Adams
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

FEWER LABS BUT METH STILL PLENTIFUL IN STATE

A Hazelden drug trend report found a 78 percent drop in meth lab 
busts after the new law took effect. But it noted that meth produced 
out of state is still easy to find here.

Methamphetamine labs are disappearing quickly in Minnesota, but that 
doesn't mean there are fewer abusers or there's less of the dangerous 
stimulant on the street, officials say.

A Hazelden drug trend report released Thursday reported a 78 percent 
drop in the number of meth labs busted and a 75 percent drop in 
people arrested for making meth in the third quarter of 2005 compared 
to that period in 2004. The drop came after a state law went into 
effect July 1 restricting the sale of decongestants -- which contain 
a key meth ingredient -- at drugstores.

"We have seen a huge drop of meth labs in the state. I think the new 
law is the best example of something that actually worked," said 
special agent Larry Bergsgaard, in charge of the narcotics unit of 
the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He said similar results 
were seen in Iowa, Oklahoma and other states that have passed similar laws.

hat drop, the latest data available, confirms anecdotal reports from 
law enforcement officials that they are finding fewer meth labs. The 
explosive chemicals used to make the drug seep into the walls and 
floors of buildings and into the environment and can cause cancer, 
brain damage and respiratory problems.

Although the report didn't cite the number of meth labs busted, in 
2003 police found more than 400 of them, according to the state 
Department of Public Safety. However, "meth continues to come into 
the state in large quantities, the purity is higher and the price is 
still pretty cheap," Bergsgaard added. Meth tested at a Minneapolis 
crime lab has increased in purity from 13.6 percent in 2001 to 73 
percent last year, according to the Hazelden Foundation's semiannual 
report on Twin Cities drug trends.

Bergsgaard also noted that regional drug task forces have seen a 
tremendous amount of cocaine at very low prices arriving, mostly from 
Mexico, in the past year.

Cocaine, Opiates Kill More

Cocaine continued to be the No. 1 drug causing people to make 
emergency hospital visits, with 3,442 such visits last year, noted 
Carol Falkowski, a Hazelden Foundation drug trend expert who compiled 
the report. And cocaine-overdose deaths increased from 49 to 62 
deaths in Hennepin and Ramsey counties in the past two years.

Although the number of people treated for meth addiction continues to 
increase, fewer died from meth overdoses. There were 14 
methamphetamine deaths in the state last year compared with 20 in 
2004, the report said. Heroin and other opiates caused the most drug 
overdose deaths in the two counties, 102 deaths in 2005, which was 30 
more than in 2004.

Among all Minnesotans, fewer than 1 percent used methamphetamine in 
the past year, Falkowski said. She noted that national surveys found 
the same share, about 0.6 percent, had used meth.

That compared with about 7 percent of Minnesotans who had tried 
marijuana, the most-mentioned drug, and 1 percent who used cocaine in 
the past year, according to a telephone survey of about 16,900 people 
interviewed for the state Human Services Department.

Among people visiting Twin Cities emergency rooms last year, meth was 
the third most often abused drug with 1,402 cases (after cocaine, 
3,552 cases, and marijuana, 3,102), said the report.

It said the typical person treated for meth addiction was a white 
man, age 18 to 25. The average age at which users started smoking 
meth is 21. Cocaine users were typically black men over 34 who 
started smoking the drug at age 25.

The most common drug abused by women in treatment is meth.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman