FEDS STEP UP EFFORTS TO STOP METH LABS

Federal authorities are redoubling their efforts against methamphetamine, the do-it-yourself drug that is said to be rampant in Missouri. According to some calculations, Missouri has the most meth labs of any state in the country, rivaled only by California in that category.

The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force busted about one-third of the meth labs in the United States in 1995 and part of 1996, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ferrell.

As a result, the federal government is adding two assistant U.S. attorneys and two officers to Southeast Missouri to work solely on meth cases. These positions are being funded by a Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Grant. The positions aren't permanent and the grant must be renewed every year, but a federal official, hinting at the need for continuation, observed, "I don't see this problem abating in the foreseeable future."

Stoddard, New Madrid, Ripley, Butler and Dunklin counties had the highest number of meth labs busted over the period 1995-96. Mississippi County was seventh on the list. Ferrell said these totals rank Southeast Missouri second only to Kansas City in meth labs in the state.

All this surely points to one fact: A beefed-up federal push against the pestilence of methamphetamine will mean more indictments, more prosecutions and the far busier court dockets that follow. Thus these developments will further bolster arguments that we need a full-time United States district judge for the Southeast Division of the federal court here. This the federal judges have refused to do in recent years. It seems clear that with the latest news, now may be the time for them to reassess this decision and send us a full-time federal judge.