Meth arrests keep climbing

Spokane’s drug of choice provides an intense, three-hour high so addicting that treatment takes twice as long as for other drugs and users will steal anything to get more.

The number of felony arrests for methamphetamine climbed in 2004 for the third consecutive year, said Lt. Darrell Toombs, who oversees the unit that targets drug traffickers. Last year, police made three times more felony arrests for meth than for any other kind of drug.

“I don’t think we’ve seen it peak,” Toombs said. “Meth use continues to grow.”

Toombs correlates the arrests with rising usage of the drug. While they didn’t have numbers Monday, Toombs and Deputy Chief Al Odenthal said they believe meth use is driving anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent of recent burglary and identity theft cases.

“Property crime is one of our major concerns,” Odenthal said. “Vehicle prowlings are still in epidemic proportions.”

Even though meth use continues to climb, the number of meth labs has plummeted, Toombs said. For example, 190 meth labs were found in Spokane County in 2002. Only 29 were found in 2004 and one so far in 2005, Toombs said.

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives have worked to target suspects who buy large amounts of ephedrine, the ingredient found in most common cold medicines, from local stores. Many of those business owners have voluntarily reduced stocks of other materials used to make the drug at home.

New laws have also brought stiffer sentences. Residents charged with making meth now get five years in prison as compared to three years for selling the drug, Toombs said. “Even our druggers have figured out there is more risk in making it than selling it,” he said.

During the worst of the meth-lab years, local law enforcement said 70 percent of the drug was coming to the Spokane area from California and Mexico. Now they believe 95 percent of it is imported, Toombs said.

In eight years of supervising the drug unit, Toombs could remember only two local labs that were large enough to make meth for profit. Most operations are for personal use or to make enough to raise money to purchase more of the drug, he said.

“One of our first goals was to get rid of the labs,” he said. “We’ve done that. Now we are working with the (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) and the county. Most of it is being imported so that is what we are concentrating on.”

Just last week, local, state and federal officials announced 26 arrests in connection with a drug distribution ring they called “Operation Replacements.”

The investigation got its name because every time midlevel drug dealers got arrested, they were immediately replaced. The ring was responsible for selling $250,000 worth of cocaine and meth a month in the Spokane region, said Selby Smith, who heads the DEA’s Spokane task force.

The dope was smuggled from Mexico and any dope that didn’t get sold went to dealers in Idaho and Montana, officials said last week.

Toombs meets every week with DEA officials and his area law enforcement counterparts.

“Everything they can shut down … has a tremendous impact on Spokane,” he said.

Unlike most units within the police department, Toombs said he has all the detectives he needs. “We can produce more work than our prosecutors can handle. We need to shore up the other end of the equation.”

Crack and powder forms of cocaine remain in the local mix. The area also has plenty of marijuana coming from Canada.

Toombs estimated that hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of the highly potent marijuana known as B.C. Bud move through Spokane every year. “Most is not staying here,” he said.

Drug officers have seen an increase in care providers stealing prescription medications from their patients and made more arrests last year for drugs commonly given to teenagers, such as hallucinogenic mushrooms and ecstasy, Toombs said.

But nothing compares to the draw of meth, he said.

“The high they get is more intense and it lasts longer, so they get more bang for their buck,” Toombs said.

Users often take several doses to stay high for two or three days at a time. If they can’t fall asleep, they often use heroin, Toombs said. “We’ve had some cases where we could not wake them up.”

And treatment for meth addiction often takes more than twice the time it takes to break addictions to cocaine or even heroin, he said.

“We are banging away at it,” Toombs said of meth use. “I’m not too fatalistic. I have to think we will get a handle on it eventually.”