ROBINSON, TAYLOR LEAD KU OVER TEXAS, 73-63, ON SENIOR NIGHT
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‘If the people of Douglas County don’t think that this is coming, they’re wrong’
LOSING THE METH WAR
LJWorld.com
City looking for flaws in ticket policies By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
A review of city policies is planned following a recent scandal in which a former Kansas University athletics official provided men’s basketball tickets to at least one police officer and also benefitted from Khatib the dismissal of speeding tickets. But Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib said in an interview last week that his department became less vulnerable to ticket-fixing problems in 2006 with the introduction of electronic ticketing. Please see POLICE, page 2A
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHERIFF BOBBY DIERKS walks through a ramshackle farmhouse Feb. 24 that he says is a hot
spot for methamphetamine cooks. Kansas has seen a surge in meth-lab incidents, from 143 in 2010 to 187 in 2011. Officials attribute the increase to the “one-pot” or “shake and bake” method of preparing the drug.
With the one-pot method, anyone with $30 can create the illegal drug, as well as the devastation it brings By Shaun Hittle sdhittle@ljworld.com
ONLINE: See the video at LJWorld.com
DEARING, KAN. — Drive through this small town, population 400, and people still wave and give a little honk. A small, brick fire station, a few stores and modest single-story houses are about all there is to the town located five miles from the Oklahoma border. Law enforcement, however, will tell you that Dearing is a hot spot for the methamphetamine production and use that plague a four-county region in southeast Kansas. “Got a lab out of that one in January,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Bobby Dierks, pointing to a rundown house in an otherwise quiet Dearing neighborhood. A few blocks down, Dierks pulls his Toyota Tundra into the driveway of a dilapidated house with “methamphetamine lab” warning signs posted on the windows and doors.
Warmer, windy
Around the corner, Dierks points to a mobile home where authorities busted a meth lab earlier this year. Talk to people in law enforcement in neighboring counties and they tell similar stories about an explosion of meth use and production in Kansas towns such as Parsons, Pittsburg, Independence, Caney and Coffeyville. “If you arrest one guy, chances are there are five guys down the street doing it,” said Christopher Williams, a drug detective with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. “There’s no shortage of people who are manufacturing methamphetamine.” In 2011, Montgomery, Labette, Cherokee and Crawford counties, which border Oklahoma and Missouri in southeast Kansas, were responsible for 129 of 187 of the state’s meth lab incidents, which include lab, dump site and other material seizures. The region’s pharmacists, pediatricians, police, prosecutors and treatment providers say they’re steeped
High: 65
Low: 30
Today’s forecast, page 10A
By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
BLISTER PACKS OF SUDAFED, such as these in a KBI photo, are common in methamphetamine seizures. Ephedrine is extracted from the tablets for the primary element in cooking meth.
The basics of meth What is it? A central nervous stimulant drug that is typically in a white powder form, or sometimes in small crystals. Users of meth can swallow, snort, smoke or inject the drug. The drug initially produces a euphoric rush — similar to cocaine — by increasing the amount of dopamine, a chemical in the brain. Meth was first created in the late 1800s and saw its first use as a medication for narcolepsy in the 1940s. Meth labs creating the
Please see METH, page 5A
INSIDE Arts&Entertainment 1C-8C Events listings Books 4C Garden Classified 1D-8D Horoscope Deaths 2A Movies
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Democrats say long session may be in store
Opinion Puzzles Sports Television
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Douglas County legislators said Saturday that major political battles over taxes, school finance and redistricting are lining up for the rest of the 2012 legislative session. State Rep. Ann Mah, DTopeka, said the session could match the record 107day session of 2002 because of redistricting fights alone. Her comment came before about 75 people who attended the Lawrence Chamber Please see ISSUES, page 6A
Question about Jones in USA Weekend
Please see BASICS, page 5A
In this week’s issue of USA Weekend, which can be found inside today’s Journal-World, there is a question on the Who’s News page about The Monkees with a reference to Davy Jones, who died last week.
COMING MONDAY
9A 5C, 7D We’re heading 1B-9B out to do a little 4A, 2B, 7D Irish road bowling.
Vol.154/No.64 66 pages
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