CALL IT good news. Only 168 seizures of methamphetamine-related materials — labs, supplies and equipment — were reported by Kansas law officers in 2006.
That “only” is in there because the figure for 2005 was 390. In 2004, there were 634 seizures. Assuming that law officers have not eased their efforts to beat back the meth epidemic and that meth makers have gotten no craftier, the figures indicate that the manufacture of meth in Kansas has been reduced by about two-thirds in three years.
KBI Director Larry Welch told The Associated Press that part of the reason for the drop in meth manufacturing in the state was the Sheriff Matt Samuels Chemical Control Act, passed by the Legislature in 2005. The law, named for the Greenwood County sheriff who was killed in a raid on a meth lab, placed tight controls on the sale of common over-the-counter medicines that are used to make meth.
It is good that a law named to honor Samuels has had such a profound effect on the safety and well-being of the people of Kansas.
But meth has not been eradicated in Kansas. Of last year’s seizures, 77 were dump sites — places where the remains of meth labs were abandoned after the drug had already been made and distributed. That means that some labs are still operating successfully in the state.
And those labs are not the biggest problem.
Welch said that shutting down Kansas labs allows law enforcement to focus more on an even bigger problem — shipments of meth from Mexico, which, he estimates, supplies 80 percent of the drug sold in the state.
Drug labs are easier to spot than drug smugglers. Methamphetamine will continue to be a problem for the people of Kansas for years to come.
But there is little question that the problem would be worse if not for the Samuels law.
It is doing what it was intended to do.