Pubdate: Sat, 13 Sep 2008
Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)
Copyright: 2008 Lee Enterprises
Contact: http://www.mvonline.com/support/contact/dhletter.html
Website: http://www.democratherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7
Author: Annemarie Knepper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

LINN TRACKS METH LABS

In partnership with local law and code enforcement,  Linn County 
Geographic Information Systems since 2005  has been tracking and 
logging homes known to house drug  labs.

A map created by GIS covers the years 1992 to 2008, and  shows 
countywide 96 green homes, or those identified  and cleaned up during 
that time, most of them about  three to five years ago. Ten homes 
remain listed as  unfit to live in and are shown in red.

The homes in green were cleaned to the point of  livability and 
issued a certificate of fitness.

Chairman Roger Nyquist of the Linn County Board of  Commissioners 
said one of the issues preventing  homeowners from fixing the problem 
was that cleaning  cost more than the home was worth. Rising home 
values in the last five years solved that problem, he said.

Another positive step was the establishment of a  self-funding system 
at the county planning and building  department that gave more local 
authority to enforce  code violations.

"Fining them wasn't really working," said Butch Skoien,  Linn County 
code enforcement officer.

Now there is a process for the county to initiate a  cleanup, with 
the offender getting the bill. A  notification process for property 
owners was also  established.

"A lot of these properties were rentals," Nyquist said.  "The 
property owner didn't know about the drug  activity, until the house 
is burning down and DEQ is  condemning it."

The county has dozed two problem properties that were  chemically 
saturated and in disrepair.

Arguably, the most effective measure came in 2005 when  changes to 
Oregon law made cold medicines containing  pseudoephedrine, a main 
ingredient in meth, more  difficult to acquire.

Though local meth cooking has been nearly eliminated,  meth from 
other countries such as Mexico is still  widely available, according 
to Linn County Sheriff Tim  Mueller.

Two years ago the sheriff's office worked with federal  drug agents, 
U.S. Marshalls and other federal agencies  to serve 13 search 
warrants at the same time.

"For about three and half weeks you could not buy  methamphetamine in 
Linn County," Mueller said.

The sheriff said the federal agents were able to take  down several 
kingpins of the drug cartel and combined  with the local sweep dried 
up the meth supply -- but  only temporarily.

"Like any corrupt organization, as soon as the  lieutenant is in jail 
there's always somebody else that  can replace him," he said.

One of the greatest successes of meth lab closures has  been keeping 
children out of dangerous environments.  Mueller recalled one 
incident where three children  under the age of 5 were removed from a 
home where meth  was being cooked. All three tested positive for the  drug.

Another benefit of the near elimination of local meth  labs is that 
neighbors and community members no longer  have to contend with dump 
sites containing meth lab  waste.

"The win for us is they are not manufacturing it here  anymore," Mueller said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom