Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 Source: Star-Gazette (NY) Copyright: 2008sStar-Gazette Contact: http://www.stargazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1005 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) CRUSADE TO FIGHT METHAMPHETAMINE NEVER ENDS Weekend Arrest, This Week's Seminar Show That The Drug Remains A High Law Enforcement Priority. Three years ago the National Association of Counties surveyed its members nationwide, asking about the No. 1 drug problem in their region. Most outsiders probably would have guessed that it was marijuana. They would have been wrong. The answer came back as methamphetamine. Meth, a highly addictive drug, can be made in garages, barns, houses or car trunks -- just about anywhere that drug dealers can scrape together many of the common household ingredients and even cold medicines to make the drug. For many years, residents living in the Northeast United States, such as those in the Twin Tiers, knew little about methamphetamine's spread, except what they read about the problem on the West Coast and its migration eastward to the Midwest. But that didn't last long, and soon meth started showing up on law enforcement logs in the Twin Tiers. Law enforcement and even hazardous materials emergency workers have had to deal with the dangers of this horrible drug and its risks to anyone even near it -- including the potential for explosions and fires. In the early part of this decade, federal, state and local authorities in Pennsylvania and New York battled to keep meth from reaching the epidemic proportions it has in parts of the Midwest and West. An update in Sunday's Star-Gazette indicates that at least anecdotally, authorities are not seeing the frequency of meth labs that they had five years ago. There's a good reason for that. Media attention has put the public on alert for telltale signs of meth manufacturing -- indications such as the pungent smell or the discarded materials used to make the drug. Another reason is the tougher laws approved in New York and Pennsylvania -- many sponsored by legislators in the Twin Tiers -- that make meth manufacturing and dealing more serious offenses subject to more severe punishments. In addition, new state and federal laws require people purchasing cold medicines with pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making meth, to show identification and sign a log that authorities can track to monitor and bust meth making. The combination of public awareness, tougher punishment, new laws and a higher state of alert by law enforcement agencies has given the Twin Tiers a multifaceted weapon to beat back the meth problem before it overruns this region of the country as it has other areas. But staying ahead of the meth criminals is not something that occurs without constant vigilance, strong prosecution of meth suspects and persistent investigation into leads regarding meth dealers. On Friday night, Chemung County Sheriff's Office deputies raided a house on Watkins Road in Pine Valley and lodged charges against a man in connection with what Sheriff Christopher Moss described to a reporter as a "good-sized" meth lab. It was a reminder that meth arrests may have tailed off, as indicated by New York State Police Lt. Pat Garey to a Star-Gazette reporter, but meth manufacturing and dealing have by no means been eradicated. In fact, recognizing the need to keep up the pressure against meth dealing, the Chemung County Sheriff's Office has used a state grant to offer a law enforcement seminar on Wednesday for officials from New York and Pennsylvania. It's an indication that those on the front lines of the war on meth know that even if the law is winning, that battle is never over. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom