March 30, 2014
By Leah Thorsen
STL
Jefferson County Detective Jim Vargas unwraps a “foilie” containing suspected methamphetamine residue during a drug raid in Crystal City on Feb. 27, 2009. The foilie had been stashed in a small boy’s shoe. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
At first glance, the statistics seem to give a glimmer of hope that perhaps meth’s grip on Missouri is loosening.
Last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the state did not lead the nation in methamphetamine busts. Missouri dropped to No. 3, behind Indiana and Tennessee.
In Missouri, the number of labs, dumpsites, and glassware and chemical seizures plummeted 25 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to numbers compiled by the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Even Jefferson County, which has consistently led the state in seizures of labs and dumpsites, saw a 35 percent drop.
But as is the case with most such numbers, the statistics don’t tell the whole story.
“It should not be any indication that the war on meth is dwindling,” said Cpl. Chris Hoffman, who leads the Jefferson County Municipal Enforcement Group, a drug task force.
Rather, the drop could be a result of a change in enforcement approach, new laws and a more powerful product being imported from Mexico.
Not surprisingly, meth busts tend to be higher in areas where officers are devoted to looking for the drug and labs, as has been the case in Jefferson County.
The task force recently has gone after larger-scale labs involving more people, instead of the smaller labs that might have yielded overall higher annual statistics, Hoffman said.
Officers also are spending more time investigating cases involving heroin, as well as synthetic and prescription drugs.
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