Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 Source: Blue Springs Examiner (MO) Copyright: 2001 Blue Springs Examiner Contact: http://examiner.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/844 Author: Darla Mcfarland ANTI-DRUG AGENCIES GATHERING IN BLUE SPRINGS Jackson County's full array of anti-drug agencies will gather Monday at the Adams Pointe Marriott in Blue Springs to demonstrate the impact of the county's 12-year-old COMBAT anti-drug tax. The COMBAT Information and Effectiveness Fair features about 80 agencies from law enforcement agencies and drug prevention and treatment programs funded by COMBAT. "The intent of the fair is to inform people that this is a tangible thing - there are real results," said Mike Shanahan, director of the Jackson County Drug Enforcement Task Force, one of the law enforcement programs funded through COMBAT. The DETF is a special drug unit of about 20 officers from 13 local law enforcement departments. The unit receives about $1.8 million in annual funding from COMBAT. Formed in the mid-1980s as an ad-hoc unit to address metrowide drug issues, the DETF has evolved into the premier drug-busting agency in the county, targeting high-volume drug manufacturers and traffickers. The DETF led the battle against methamphetamine production in the county, an effort that has been dramatically successful. In 1997, for example, the DETF dismantled about 119 meth labs in the county. Last year, the number was down to 14. Shanahan said the DETF was able to drive down the number of meth producers by going after the people who sold pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient of meth. "What we did was turn to a more proactive approach, instead of letting the criminal dictate the terms," Shanahan said. The technique worked, driving the raw cost of pseudoephedrine from $300 a case in 1997 to more than $4000 a case today. Those results, however, do not diminish the need to keep enforcement strong, Shanahan said. "Methamphetamine has not really gone down - it is still there, but home production is down," he said, as are the dangerous explosions that accompanied many home-based meth operations. Instead, meth dealers are turning more to organized criminal cartels to supply the product for a demanding market. The DETF is addressing the new model with more informants and undercover agents to penetrate highly organized and sophisticated drug rings. COMBAT is the mechanism that keeps the task force moving forward, Shanahan said. "COMBAT allows us to respond in a dramatic way, without a lot of bureaucratic delay," he said. At the fair Monday, the DETF will lay out its operations and successes for the public, in the hope that tax payers will see the value of the COMBAT tax. COMBAT, which stands for Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax, generates about $18 million a year from a quarter-cent sales tax ear-marked specifically for drug enforcement, prevention and treatment. Voters first approved the COMBAT tax in 1989 and renewed it in 1995. The tax must be renewed again before March 2004. Last year, COMBAT organized its first Information and Effectiveness Fair in Kansas City but this year's fair should be much broader in scope, said COMBAT program administrator Jim Nunnelly. "The fair is like an interactive annual report," Nunnelly said. "People should come away from this with a real understanding of the scope of the COMBAT program and a better understanding of the complexity of COMBAT and the drug problem." The COMBAT Information and Effectiveness Fair begins with a recognition breakfast at 9:30 a.m. at the Adams Pointe Courtyard by Marriott Hotel conference center. The hotel is at 1500 N.E. Coronado Drive in Blue Springs, about three blocks south of Adams Dairy Parkway. Following the breakfast, the information fair runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend. Along with the dozens of agencies at the fair, Nunnelly said several program participants will be on hand to share their experiences with COMBAT programs and the impact it had on their lives. "It is one thing for us to extoll the virtues of COMBAT. It is quite another to see it through the eyes of the people that have been helped," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Kirk