The good news: Use of crack cocaine is declining in Kalamazoo. The bad news: Use of methamphetamine, a much more addictive and harmful drug, is on the rise in southwest Michigan.

That is what Capt. Jerome Bryant of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agents told an audience of judges, parole officers and social workers at a workshop Thursday during the Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals conference at the Radisson Plaza Hotel at Kalamazoo Center.

Bryant said consumption of crack cocaine has declined considerably over the last few years, based on the decreasing number of arrests, seizures, hospitalizations and deaths related to the drug.

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