The Burke County Narcotics Task Force dismantled 33 meth labs last year, making Burke the top county in North Carolina for such busts in 2011.
Task Force Sgt. Rick Hasson says his investigators expect to find at least that many, if not more, in 2012.
Burke County is not alone; North Carolina and much of the nation saw record amounts of meth busts in 2011.
But Hasson says Burke’s investigators place a premium on wiping out meth production.
Burke Sheriff Steve Whisenant says the task force’s success has not gone unnoticed — Whisenant’s been fielding calls from other agencies across the state that want to emulate Burke County’s approach.
“They’re pretty amazed at how aggressive we can be,” Whisenant said.
The sheriff noted that Burke’s top ranking in meth is from enforcement.
“I don’t think any more meth labs than anywhere else,” he said.
As meth seizures have propelled, other drug busts have dwindled.
The task force’s pill seizures dropped more than 25 percent, and many other drugs appeared in smaller quantities on the agencies end-of-year stats.
Hasson says the drugs of choice have changed some, with meth becoming more prevalent.
But a bigger reason for fewer other busts is how time consuming it is to dismantle a meth lab.
It takes Hasson’s entire team of six investigators an average of six hours or more at each scene, and that’s not counting the time it takes to track down the leads to find a lab.
Whisenant says it can be a strain on the rest of the sheriff’s office as well.
When SBI agents and cleanup crews can’t make it out the day a lab is busted, Whisenant has to take a deputy off the road to guard the scene overnight.
The amount of time spent at a lab blunts the task force’s other drug enforcement efforts.
But meth and its production is so dangerous, Hasson says it has to be the top priority.
Pill abuse still high
Prescription pill abuse remains a top problem for Burke County, according to Hasson.
Investigators seized 3,251 pills in 2011, down from the 4,408 pills reported in 2010 but more than twice the 1,441 pills from 2009.
Painkillers were the most abused, with investigators confiscating 1,083 oxycodone and 747 hydrocodone pills.
Hasson said prescription drugs are such a problem because people mistakenly think they are safe because a doctor prescribed them.
It is quite dangerous to use drugs that aren’t prescribed to you, or beyond what the doctor tells you, the investigator said.
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