Local police were heard by DEA, Bond

Things were looking grim for local law enforcement when the Drug Enforcement Administration's top official, Asa Hutchinson, visited Cape Girardeau in the spring.

The news had just broken: Missouri passed California in 2001 in the number of methamphetamine labs. Considering the difference in size and population between the two states, the development was particularly shocking.

In 2001, when there were 2,130 meth labs found in Missouri, 415 more than in second-place California. In Cape Girardeau County, there were 68 meth labs found in 2001, in Scott County, there were 32, in Bollinger there were 11 and in Perry there were six.

So when Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., brought Hutchinson in May to the regional airport to listen to the men and women charged with fighting drugs in our region, things may have seemed a little hopeless.

Those crime fighters must have wondered what Hutchinson and Bond would do for them.

Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell told them he could bust a meth lab every day with the manpower and money to do so. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said meth cooks could be caught every night stealing anhydrous ammonia -- a vital component in production of the drug -- if officers were stationed by farmers' tanks.

Sgt. Kevin Glaser, supervisor of the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, complained about the government limiting drug-enforcement funds for overtime. "We can use it for equipment, which is great," he said. "But if I don't have the people, there's no one to use the equipment."

Hutchinson's advice to the group was to keep talking and they'd be heard.

Now, five months and $2 million later, they know: He was right.

This month, Bond's office announced a $2,069,412 U.S. Department of Justice allocation to be sent to Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan to administer for the Missouri Sheriffs Methamphetamine Relief Team, a coalition of Missouri sheriffs that Bond and Jordan organized.

Jordan has volunteered to oversee the money in subcontracts made to other Missouri sheriffs and rural drug task forces in their fight against meth. About $1 million will be directed toward the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to help the agency clean up toxic meth lab sites.

The program has a history of being effective: The money helped hire 21 new full-time meth investigators and three full-time drug intelligence analysts in 2001.

This recent development is an example of the way government is supposed to work. The professionals charged with protecting us spoke to an elected official, Bond, and now they're getting the assistance they need to do their jobs.

The process needs to continue in this manner so the dangerous and life-destroying drug meth can be eradicated from our region.