As communities across the country continue to deal with the opioid epidemic, some areas, including Pasco County, find themselves fighting a rise in meth use.
- Pasco County sees rise in meth use
- Meth becoming primary & secondary drug of choice
- Meth ranks among highest of drug arrests in Pasco
With fighting this trend, comes challenges for law enforcement and officials.
The men and women sent in to tackle hazmat situations can encounter any number of toxic substances, officials say.
A recent joint training session brought agencies together to hone skills that can help them handle a range of situations, including meth labs.
"The remains of the product that they're making are very volatile -- they can explode," Pasco County Fire Rescue Training Division Chief Shawn Whited said.
Whited says 2017 actually saw a dramatic decrease in labs found in the county. That's because the market has been flooded by meth from Mexican cartels.
Data from the county's alliance for substance abuse and prevention shows meth steadily increasing in Pasco as a primary and secondary drug of choice from 2012-2016.
"If it's cheap and it's available, there's the answer," Circuit Court Judge Shawn Crane said.
Crane said he's seen this reflected in his courtroom in the form of an increase in meth-related cases during the past two years.
"Meth is a very difficult habit to quit. A lot of it's individual and a lot of it is polysubstance abuse. So many times, people aren't kicking a single drug," he said.
Both the sheriff's office and Judge Crane stress the importance of community partnerships in combating meth and addiction in general.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, meth-related offenses consistently rank among the highest number of drug arrests for the office other than marijuana.