Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that November 30, 2006 is National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.  A press conference was held at the BCI-OPOTA Training Center in Richfield, Ohio, to encourage the media to make the public aware of this growing drug problem.  Mr. White advised there appears to be certain groups that are under served by anti-methamphetamine education efforts, including college students, women, and members of the workforce and professions which encompass most of the methamphetamine using population who are only reached if they enter a hospital or treatment center or get arrested.

Mr. White also emphasized that parents need to be aware of the red flags that may indicate their children have begun using drugs and, in particular, methamphetamine, which is becoming more easily available.  These red flags include changes in sleeping patterns, unreliability in that they skip school or work, abrupt changes in relationships, motor mouth, irritability and weight loss.

Captain Hylton Baker, the Summit County Drug Unit Commander, advised, “The cost in man hours is astronomical and the work is doubly dangerous.  The officers are dealing with dangerous criminals and dangerous chemicals.  At the end of the day, there are no forfeitures to reinvest in the task force, just a costly, hazardous waste site to clean up.  For every pound of meth produced, five to six pounds of toxic waste are produced.”

John Sommer, Executive Director of the Ohio HIDTA, advised, “The hazardous waste clean up from these labs has been handled with DEA-funded hazardous waste companies.  There is no local funding available specifically for handling hazardous waste.  DEA and the State of Ohio spent $680,447 in clean up costs in 2004 as compared to $362,000 the previous year.”

Law enforcement investigations have determined that, although much methamphetamine comes from Mexico, in the State of Ohio, local independent distributors working out of small labs in kitchens, back yards and motor vehicles are the primary source of the production, distribution and abuse of methamphetamine.  These labs are referred to as “mom and pop operations.”

Currently, local agencies are reporting new clandestine labs to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) at the rate of nearly one per day.  This rapid proliferation of labs in our communities demands a strong response from Ohio law enforcement.  To fight this epidemic, Attorney General Jim Petro created the Clandestine Drug Lab Unit within BCI’s Narcotics Division to respond to reports of labs and to provide training for local law enforcement agencies.

"The Attorney General’s Office added a methamphetamine prevention and awareness section to it’s Web site to help educate the public regarding this serious epidemic and provide a place to report suspected meth labs in Ohio to the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. The information can be found at www.ag.state.oh.us,” said Scott Duff, BCI, Meth Unit Commander.
Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander, who leads the Summit County Drug Unit, has also developed a Web site which can be found at www.co.summit.oh.us/sheriff.  Sheriff Alexander advised that this Unit has led the State in meth lab dismantlements for the past three years.

The Department of Justice Web site can be found at www.usdoj.gov/methawareness/ and the Drug Enforcement Administration Web site can be found at www.dea.gov.

The U.S. Pretrial and Probation Department has developed Project Penalty Awareness, which is a multi-media effort to educate the public about Federal drug trafficking offenses and the penalties attached thereto.

Attached hereto are recent methamphetamine statistics.