Methamphetamine Florida Drug Threat Assessment

These officials and treatment providers also reportthat the level of abuse in northern Florida, the Florida panhandle, and in someareas of southern Florida such as Miami Beach, Key West, and Fort Lauderdale hasincreased. Methamphetamine producers in Florida often steal the chemicals necessary for production. Most local methamphetamine production occurs in single-family homes, apartments, storage buildings, cars, and wooded areas.

In 2004 and 2005, six labs were busted, but so far in 2006, while individual users have been arrested for possession, the Sheriff’s Office has yet to find a single laboratory. Approximately 2.5 million people aged 12 and older reported using methamphetamine in the U.S., according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Data gathered by World Population Review from 2021 shows California has the highest number of meth users in the country, with 418,000 people.

Receding arrest rates reflect no laboratory busts so far this year.

That number increased in March to 371, but declined in April and again in May. In 2000 illicit drugs frequently were detected among adult malearrestees in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the two cities in Florida thatparticipate in the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program. According to2000 ADAM data, 62.8 percent of adult male arrestees in Miami and 61.8 percentin Fort Lauderdale tested positive for abusing at least one illicit substance.

Polk Still Seen as Meth ‘Hot Spot’

• With about 570,000 people, Polk is second only to Orlando’s Orange County in population among the counties.
• When he worked in Gadsden County, he befriended a known drug user, who got addicted to meth.
• Experts say that most large-scale drug smugglers use ports of entry and drugs are not carried by people illegally crossing the border on foot.
• The sheriff said besides drugs, stolen firearms were also found with Ornelas-Loza.
• Tech/Business refers to the technology and business environment, including its innovation capacity, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness.
• “The street value on all of this is $54 million. The largest seizure included 1,342 pounds of liquid meth. It was transported in buckets like these,” the sheriff explained while pointing to a stack of orange Home Depot buckets.

According to local law enforcement officials, local methamphetamine producers frequently steal anhydrous ammonia–a common fertilizer–from farms, often placing the liquid in containers such as propane tanks, coolers, fire extinguishers, and other containers. Many of these containers are not designed to store anhydrous ammonia, which is highly corrosive and toxic, leading to a potential hazard. When collecting other essential chemicals such as pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine producers often avoid large retail stores in which employees are more likely to report suspicious purchases or detect thefts.

As Florida Grapples With Opioid Addiction, Meth Emerges As Threat In Panhandle

This category includes metrics such as literacy rates, enrollment rates, teacher-to-student ratio, and educational attainment. Other metrics like education spending, curriculum quality, and technological readiness are also included. Culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a group or society.

On March 13, Stanton had 43-year old Jennifer Meers, a woman from Stone Mountain, Georgia who is on federal probation for drug trafficking, deliver a suitcase carrying 26 pounds of meth to an undercover detective at a hotel in Lakeland. Another factor in the successful elimination of local meth labs is an increased police focus on the issue, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “Transnational drug trafficking organizations have improved manufacturing methods to drive down purity-adjusted prices through increased specialization via industrial-scale manufacturing.

• (Some of these seizures also were reported as part of Operation Jetwaystatistics.) In addition, county and local law enforcement agencies seizesignificant quantities of illicit drugs but do not report seizure totals as partof Operation Jetway or to USCS.
• Also known as the Nazi method, this method typically yields ounce quantities of high quality d-methamphetamine and often is used by independent dealers and producers.
• In southern Florida7,244 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) were filed by financial institutions inFY2001, the third highest number of filings in the United States.
• This entailed spendingacross program areas including justice, education, health, child-familyassistance, mental health-developmental disabilities, public safety, and thestate workforce.

Polk County Sheriff makes largest meth bust in county history

Ohio, which is known for its opioid crisis, has reported a decrease in the number of opioid prescriptions while methamphetamine remains widely available across the state. As Florida continues battling an opioid abuse crisis, another, largely forgotten drug has ramped up in North Florida—meth. Its low cost and relative ease of access, is making it harder for local law meth capital of florida enforcement agencies to control. Those props illustrated Judd’s announcement Thursday morning of what he said was the largest methamphetamine bust in the history of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, netting the seizure of more than $53 million in illegal drugs. Judd described a three-month operation that involved the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, other federal agencies and police departments in Florida and Georgia.

A law that took effect in Florida on July 1 limited the amount of pseudophedrine that could be sold in drug stores. The overthe-counter cold medicine is one of the key ingredients in methamphetamine. In 2005, there were 205 methamphetamine-possession arrests, and 75 more serious trafficking arrests. So far in 2006, there have been 53 possession arrests and seven trafficking arrests. In 2002, 17 methamphetamine labs were busted by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

A state law also requires drug stores to keep behind the counters medicines in which pseudoephedrine is the sole ingredient. BARTOW – The dwindling number of methamphetamine lab busts in Polk County may suggest the county has shed its reputation of being the Meth Capital of Florida. Meth seizure at the southwest border is increasing, Tree said, but “this is a very long-term trend.”

Years ago the county was peppered with labs, but in recent years that hasn’t been the case. It’s a feel-good thought, but drug treatment counselor Libbie Combee said it’s not reality.

Fewer busts of labs does not mean that the county has shed its reputation.

“There’s a market for drugs in every community. When the supply of one type of drug dries up, another one comes along,” Judd said. “Up until recently, individuals would just walk into drug stores and buy all the pseudoephedrine they needed,” FDLE agent Waller said. There are several factors behind the disappearing meth lab phenomenon, authorities say. In 2021, 32,537 people died from an overdose involving psychostimulants, according to CDC data. Meth use increases the risk of HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other infectious diseases. “Drug traffickers have also figured out how to improve on synthesis so they can produce more potent products. The methamphetamine sold today is cheaper, purer, and more potent—and in these terms, more dangerous—than ever before.

The purity of crystal methamphetaminetypically is over 80 percent, depending upon the amount of washing, the purityof the initial substance, and the experience of the laboratory operator. Crystalmethamphetamine typically is administered by smoking using a glass pipe,although some abusers inject the drug. WINTER HAVEN — Law enforcement agencies say a random shipment of pills led them to the biggest meth haul in Polk County history, and broke up a drug ring being directed from a federal penitentiary. Six people have been arrested, including five people in the country illegally. On March 13, Jennifer Meers of Stone Mountain, Georgia, delivered a suitcase containing plastic bags holding 26 pounds of meth to undercover detectives in Polk County, the PCSO said. Meers, 43, had only left federal prison in January and was on probation for a previous drug-trafficking conviction, Judd said.

It is where they spread hepatitis through meth use, once elected a white supremacist sheriff, and often find themselves in perp walks on Orlando or Tampa Bay TV. The sheriff said besides drugs, stolen firearms were also found with Ornelas-Loza. In April, a search warrant was issued for Isidoro Palacious at two Georgia locations. Another 77 pounds of meth was seized and investigators broke up a cockfighting ring. Meers was supposed to deliver 35 more pounds to undercover detectives, but a psychic in Georgia told her “I don’t think it’s a good time to go to Florida,” according to Judd. On March 13, a suitcase carrying the meth was delivered to undercover agents at a Lakeland hotel by Jennifer Meers, who is from Georgia, according to the agency.

Meth seizures in Illinois have increased from 72.9kg in 2017 to 289.9kg in 2018, according to the DEA. A majority of the meth in Illinois is trafficked through by Mexican drug cartels. Janes said his office came up with a strategy in 2003 to combat methamphetamine in the state by taking on meth labs, but in the past year the focus has been changed to prevention and treatment. In February, officers at ports of entry and Border Patrol agents recorded 342 meth seizure events.

Officers alsoare advised not to shine bright lights at the user, who may become violent ifblinded. Vice Lords, one of the largest and most violent associations ofstreet gangs in the United States, is based in Chicago. Vice Lords is split among major factions such asConservative Vice Lords, Traveling Vice Lords, and Four Corner Hustlers. Vice Lords members distributedrugs, principally crack cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, as well as someheroin, in 28 states including Florida. Most of the methamphetamine available in Florida is produced in high volume laboratories in California, Mexico, and southwestern states using the hydriodic acid/red phosphorus method or is produced locally using the Birch reduction method. (See text box.) Local production typically occurs in rural areas of the state, particularly in northern Florida.