Pubdate: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2007 The Register-Guard Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Author: Rebecca Taylor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METH LABS DECREASE IN COUNTY, STATEWIDE Home-grown methamphetamine labs have all but disappeared from Lane County since the tightening last year of Oregon's laws restricting access to pseudoephedrine, a primary ingredient in meth production found in cold and allergy medications. So far this year, police have uncovered two meth labs within county lines, both believed to be dump sites or remnants of inactive labs. Compared with a high of 84 labs in 1998, it's a dramatic drop that has been reflected statewide. According to Department of Human Services statistics, law enforcement uncovered 587 labs in Oregon in 2001. So far this year, there have been 21. "Those numbers obviously have dropped precipitously," said Brett Sherry, an environmental health specialist with the DHS drug lab cleanup program. "A huge reason for that is the laws put into effect to control precursors." Since July 2006, Oregon has required a doctor's prescription for medications that contain pseudoephedrine. The state's Board of Pharmacy two years earlier had moved such medications behind pharmacy counters to limit access and prevent bulk sales to meth cooks, a move reinforced in 2005 by the passage of the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, which applied the restrictions nationwide. Although labs are drying up, meth addiction remains a serious problem in Oregon. The number of Oregonians checking into treatment programs has remained steady, as has the number of drug arrests in the state. The same is true in Lane County, according to Eugene police Sgt. Jerry Webber, who heads the city's vice-narcotics unit, whose detectives double as the county meth lab cleanup team. "There's just as much meth here as there ever was, they're just not making it," Webber said. As the domestic supply has dwindled, so-called "superlabs" located primarily in Mexico aE" always a big meth source even before the national crackdown aE" have stepped in to fill the void. "Most of the dope we're seeing is being imported from outside the state," said Lt. Mike Dingeman, commander of the Oregon State Police drug enforcement section. "We believe most of it that is coming into the U.S. is from Mexico." But recent international efforts have helped dam the flow of meth from the south, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association. "We've been having some success getting Mexico, India and Germany to be very cooperative," said Bovett, who has worked with Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., to draft state and federal meth regulations. Nine factories in three countries aE" India, Germany and China aE" manufacture most of the world's pseudoephedrine, Bovett said. And Mexico is one of the leaders in meth production and exportation. In 2004, Mexico imported 230 metric tons of pseudoephedrine, an "obscene amount" for a country with a legitimate need for only about 70 metric tons, Bovett said. Due to new restrictions, the country imported only 76 metric tons of pseudoephedrine last year, he said. The sudden drop is due to unprecedented controls that Mexico has begun exercising on the supply of pseudoephedrine under President Felipe Calderon. Beginning in January, Mexico will prohibit the importation of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, and all use of the precursor chemicals will be banned throughout the country by January 2009. As a result, the cost of meth has skyrocketed in the United States. Earlier this month, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration reported a 73 percent increase in the cost of a pure gram of meth between January and September of this year, to $245 from $141. Dealers are cutting pure meth with other substances to make it go farther. "About a year ago the purity of the meth on the street in America went down for the first time in the past 10 years," Bovett said. "We're starting to see addicts on our streets think they're getting ripped off because the meth isn't as strong as it was before, and they're right. The purity is going down across the nation." Some users are turning to other drugs to get high. Experts have observed a slight resurgence in cocaine use in Central Oregon and in heroin use in the eastern part of the state. But today's less-addictive meth is driving some people to seek treatment, Bovett said. The next step is to expand Oregon's treatment capacity, he said. "This is a golden opportunity to really do what we need to be doing in terms of prevention, enforcement and treatment," he said. "Public safety demands that these folks have access to treatment." The restrictions appear to be having a mysterious side effect aE" a significant drop in property crime in Oregon and the nation. Law enforcement has attributed about 85 percent of Oregon property crime to meth-addled criminals looking for quick cash to buy their next fix. Experts expected the problem to get worse as meth grew scarcer and more expensive, but recent FBI numbers have shown the opposite. Nationwide, property crime decreased 2.9 percent in 2006 compared to 2005. Oregon saw a 16 percent drop in property crime between 2005 and 2006. Among cities with populations over 100,000, Eugene experienced the biggest decrease of 18.6 percent between 2005 and 2006, but Portland and Salem also had double-digit drops during the same period. "That's one of the things everybody's trying to figure out," said Mike Stafford, public safety planning coordinator for the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. It's possible that so-called "smurfing" operations aE" where six or seven people buy the ingredients for a single cook to turn into meth to be shared among the group aE" were also operating as criminal cells, and the laws that broke up meth rings also broke up theft rings, Bovett said. But Bovett and others warned it is too early to draw any conclusions from the numbers, which could be caused by changes in crime reporting, an increase in the number of citations vs. arrests, decreases in police staffing levels or the cyclical nature of crime trends. The Criminal Justice Commission has assembled a work group of sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors and a state Department of Justice analyst to examine the possible causes and meaning of the decrease. Its findings will be forwarded to the Legislature and governor, Stafford said. The drop in lab activity has had other positive side effects, experts said. Fewer unwitting families are moving into homes contaminated by previous tenants' meth labs. The highly toxic chemicals involved in meth cooking are being kept out of the environment. And fewer children are living in unhealthy, dangerous conditions. Oregon's apparent victory over domestic meth labs has made it a model for other states and countries combatting their own meth problems, Bovett said. England recently began requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-based medicines, though police there seized a total of five labs last year. "I think there are a lot of folks around the world that are learning some of the hard lessons we've learned in Oregon, but by no means are we done," he said. "The meth lab problem is solved but not the meth problem." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek