GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS ON LOCAL METH USAGE

WASHINGTON - Last year, authorities in Washington County seized four
methamphetamine labs, makeshift sites used to cook toxic chemicals
into the highly addictive drug, state police said.

By October of this year, only one lab had been uncovered in the county
of 49,000 residents.

State officials said the statistic is evidence that Oklahoma's tough
anti-meth laws adopted in 2004 are working, with the state number of
detected meth labs decreasing by about 90 percent.

But others, including drug counselors and a Bartlesville judge, said
the numbers do not tell the whole story.

Shutting down the local meth "cooks" has not stopped the meth problem,
they said, because the drug is finding its way into Oklahoma from
other sources.

"We're seeing now an influx of crystal meth, or 'ice,' that's come
into play," said Washington County Associate District Judge Curtis
DeLapp, referring to a purer, smokable form of the drug. "I don't know
where it's coming from."

DeLapp said he could not estimate the number of meth-related crimes in
the county because they range from domestic abuse to theft.

The county drug court DeLapp helped set up in September already has
enrolled more than 20 meth users and DeLapp said he did not expect to
have trouble filling an additional 50 slots.

The continuing flow of meth into places like Bartlesville despite
strong state laws is evidence of a shifting trend in meth production
in the United States, state and national law enforcement officials
say.

The movement is away from small individual labs and toward superlabs
and international trafficking.

"Mexico is now becoming the epicenter here," said Dave Murray, a
policy analyst with the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "It's
the traditional bad-guy cartels."

States' efforts

In an effort to crack down on meth cooks, at least 36 states limit
customer purchases of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine and
ephedrine or have other controls such as placing packages behind store
counters or requiring customers to sign for a purchase, according to
the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Oklahoma, the law that went into effect April 2004 requires
medicines containing meth ingredients to be sold behind a pharmacy
counter, and customers are limited to purchasing 9 grams or less,
about 300 tablets.

State laws appear to be working, Murray said. He said the Bush
administration is anticipating a nationwide decrease in seized meth
labs this year.

Authorities were called out to 17,170 meth sites nationwide in 2004 to
investigate lab seizures, dumpsites and evidence of meth chemicals or
equipment, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Almost 660 of those were in Oklahoma, the same year the state passed
its meth law. That was a 62 percent drop from the 1,068 incidents the
previous year.

"We're not losing ground on this," Murray said. "There is no reason to
believe we can't control this and shape this."

But as fewer rural labs are producing meth, more finished product is
being shipped in from Mexico and other countries, said Doug Coleman, a
special agent and spokesman for the DEA.

In 2004, the DEA seized about 252 million dosage units, or "hits," of
meth. By September, this year's total was already 312 million dosage
units, according to data on the department Web site.

"That's the nature of the drug trade," Coleman said. "It's like
putting your finger in a dike - as you shut off one, there may be
another hole popping up."

Changing face

The meth production shift to Mexico is not the first time the
stimulant's trade has shifted.

Canada initially was a major supplier of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine
being "cooked" at California superlabs, Coleman said.

The DEA worked with Canada to tighten its export and reporting laws.
Then as the Internet became popular, meth recipes became easily
available online, causing the drug to spread eastward and into rural
communities, Coleman said.

In response, states began to crack down on cold medicine purchases,
and meth production started evolving again.