Summit County,Ohio ranks among worst for meth sites

Summit County,Ohio ranks among worst for meth sites:

DEA data link 102 places in county — third most in nation — to drug

Summit County — long reputed to be the ''meth capital of Ohio'' — ranks as the third worst community in the nation for the drug, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data.

The county has 102 methamphetamine sites listed on the DEA's online National Clandestine Laboratory Register, trailing only two other counties in the country. Jefferson and St. Charles counties, both in Missouri, have 166 and 112, respectively.

Summit also accounts for nearly half of the total sites in Ohio (220).

And nobody seems to know why.

''I wish we knew the answer to that,'' said Sonia A. Alemagno, director of the Institute For Health and Social Policy at the University of Akron.

One theory is that authorities here have been more aggressive in attacking the problem.

Capt. Hylton Baker, head of the Summit County Drug Unit, attributed the high number to an organized, aggressive effort by law enforcement. The public also has been educated
to spot illegal activity and alert authorities, he added.

Richard Smeltz, a block watch captain in Akron's Kenmore neighborhood, agreed.

''We've been made more aware,'' he said. ''We've educated ourselves and do a much better job of identifying potential drug houses.''

But Alemagno said meth — a drug made by cooking various chemicals, including over-the-counter medications — isn't prevalent everywhere.

''It's virtually impossible to find meth in Cleveland,'' she said, as an example. ''As a drug researcher, this fascinates us.''

The DEA register (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/seizures/index.html) lists known meth labs or sites where meth equipment was found in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It was last updated in July.

The Web site can be misleading because addresses are listed even if a property never served as a meth lab. For example, meth equipment could have been dumped on the front lawn, but the address is listed as a meth site.

While flawed, the register is an indicator of meth activity in a community, authorities said.

Ashtabula County ranks second in Ohio with 16 sites on the DEA register. Portage County has six, while Stark has three. Medina and Wayne have no sites.

Nationwide, the DEA has identified more than 5,100 meth sites on the National Clandestine Laboratory Register.

Missouri leads the U.S. with 869. Indiana is second with 451. Ohio is 10th.

Missouri and the Midwest are popular areas for meth, said Michael Sanders, a DEA spokesman. He couldn't explain why.

''You get different hot spots for different drugs,'' he said. ''New York is big for heroin but it's not for cocaine. In L.A., it's coke.''

The number of small meth labs are declining nationwide because of new laws that restrict the easy purchase of over-the-counter medications, Sanders said.

Drug experts also have noted a recent slip in meth use in Ohio and the nation. The Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration both have reported on the decline, saying it's the result of the drug not being available as much on the street.