President Calls For Funding Cutbacks PINEVILLE, Mo. - Efforts by local law officers to control the methamphetamine problem would be crippled if President Bush and his Office of National Drug Control Policy have their way, according to the local officers. The Bush administration says it wants to eliminate the $634 million Byrne Grant program, which, along with local matches, pays more than half the costs of operating three area task forces charged with investigating drug cases in Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas. [continues 558 words]
Number of Labs Seized in Missouri Remains High The number of methamphetamine labs seized in Missouri over the first six months of 2004 indicates no letup in the battle between law-enforcement officers and the manufacturers of the highly addictive drug. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported in August that 1,460 manufacturing operations and dump sites were found across the state from Jan. 1 through June 30. A total of 2,860 operations and dump sites were reported for all of 2003. [continues 970 words]
Authorities Blame Increase In Drug Arrests For Lack Of Sufficient Space MOUNT VERNON, Mo. - County jails in Southwest Missouri are straining under the growing number of people being arrested for drug crimes, authorities say. Some area jails are bulging at the seams, and county sheriffs are left scrambling for bed space to house inmates. In Lawrence County, the crowding has forced officials to seek the help of other counties, costing thousands in local tax dollars. Sheriff Doug Seneker said the county jail, built in 1986, was designed for a maximum capacity of 26 prisoners but can hold as many as 40 when mattresses are placed on the floor. But throughout most of 2002, the county had far more than 40 prisoners in custody, Seneker said. [continues 1059 words]
Officials Say Prescription-Drug Use Growing Trend That's Hard To Detect A recent incident in which middle-school girls were caught sharing a prescription painkiller at a Joplin school shines a local spotlight on a growing national problem. The incident took place Nov. 14, when a student at North Middle School brought hydrocodone, a prescription painkiller, from her home and gave two pills to two other girls. One girl admitted taking a half a pill, and the other girl admitted taking one and a half pills. [continues 935 words]
A growing crime problem, especially the proliferation of methamphetamine use and production, is straining Missouri's network of crime laboratories, including the regional lab at Missouri Southern State College. But, law enforcers in counties around Joplin say they have it good compared with their counterparts elsewhere in the state. Agencies such as the Greene County Sheriff's Department, almost entirely dependent on the Missouri State Highway Patrol's crime lab and its satellite operations, are more reliant on the overworked and understaffed system. [continues 1238 words]
PINEVILLE, Mo. - The president of the Rogers (Ark.) Recreation Association, a city policy-making board, will be in McDonald County Associate Circuit Court next month to ask a judge to exclude evidence that the prosecutor says points to the defendant's guilt on charges of possession of cocaine and resisting arrest. The hearing for Charles F. Hudson, 48, of Rogers, originally scheduled for Monday, was delayed until July 1, according to McDonald County Prosecutor Steve Geeding. At that hearing, the judge will hear a motion to suppress evidence and will conduct a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to order that a trial be held. [continues 538 words]
Missouri On Top In Numbers Reported While reports are still trickling in to federal authorities and a lack of uniformity makes them questionable, statistics suggest that Missouri leads the nation in an unenviable category - the number of methamphetamine labs reported by law enforcement officers. The latest numbers provided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration show that Missouri recorded 2,137 seizures of methamphetamine "labs," dumpsites and locations of inactive labs in 2001. Police use the term "lab" to describe the places where manufacturers produce methamphetamine, and could describe a home, car or other location. [continues 956 words]
Retailers assist lawmen in battle against meth With methamphetamine production and use on the rise in the Joplin area, law enforcement officers are enlisting the help of retailers in their struggle to get a handle on the drug. Wal-Mart, the largest retailer and one of the largest pharmacies in the area, is among a number of businesses reporting to police when people buy the materials used to make methamphetamine. Police say the cooperation has helped nab a number of meth producers. [continues 1058 words]
Lawmen: Producers Drawn To Rural Nature Of Region Missouri is challenging California for a dubious distinction, and Jasper County is leading the way. For years, California has been the undisputed capital of the methamphetamine manufacturing business in the United States, but Missouri is threatening to take one of the meth titles away from the glitter state. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, law enforcement officers busted well over 2,000 methamphetamine labs last year, pushing California, which the patrol said reported 1,472 labs seized in 2001, to No. 2. [continues 1114 words]
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. - A Stotts City man may have died of a heart attack while trying to flee from police Wednesday night, authorities said. Lawrence County Sheriff Doug Seneker said John Dewayne Ellis, 44, collapsed and died after he was chased on foot by a deputy through a wooded area west of Mount Vernon, near the community of Baptist Hill. Seneker said Ellis was fleeing from a rural mobile home where investigators later found chemicals and glassware commonly used in making methamphetamine. Investigators said they also found evidence that someone had been cooking methamphetamine, and a quantity of what was believed to be the finished product. [continues 451 words]
GALENA, Kan. -- A former police officer has been charged after a Cherokee County sheriff's deputy on a routine traffic stop allegedly found what appeared to be drugs and paraphernalia on his person and in his truck. Olen T. Thronebury, 27, of Commerce, Okla., was charged with possession of an illegal drug with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, criminal possession of a firearm and traffic violations. Undersheriff George Kelly said Thronebury made his first appearance Monday in Cherokee County District Court, and bond was set at $50,000. [continues 257 words]
