Stats: 70 percent of drug arrests are meth-related (Nevada)

By JIM SECKLER
The Daily News

KINGMAN - Law enforcement agencies from three states are waging the war on methamphetamine in the Tri-state area.

The good news is the Mohave County Sheriff's Office has seen a decrease in the number of meth labs.

The bad news is that the use of meth has steadily increased with the county's increasing population, Sheriff Tom Sheahan said.


In 2004, the sheriff's office conducted 554 arrests involving drugs. In 2005, there were 591 drug arrests. About 65 to 70 percent of all drug arrests involve methamphetamine, Sheahan said.

Education is one of the main tools the sheriff's office uses to fight the use of meth in the county.

Since the early 1990s, the sheriff office's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has aimed its program at 1,000 to 1,500 sixth-grade students in the schools in the unincorporated areas of the county including Fort Mojave, Mohave Valley, Topock and Golden Shores.

Next school year, the program will also expand to include fifth-grade students in county schools, Sheahan said.

Another key in the war on meth is working with local retailers to monitor unusual purchases of ingredients used to make the drug.

Bullhead City and Kingman, as well as Phoenix and Tucson, recently restricted the purchase of over-the-counter drugs such as pseudoephedrine at local pharmacists within city limits.

Lawmakers are trying to pass a similar law statewide.


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