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State Police: Michigan Gaining Reputation As Top Producer Of Meth

DETROIT (WWJ) - It's not a welcome distinction. Michigan is gaining a reputation for being one of the leading states for the production of methamphetamines, police say.

More than 1,500 meth labs and dump sites have been found in Michigan since 2013, according to state police, with a reported 861 found last year alone.

MSP Detective First Lt. Wayne Edington, who heads up the Fifth District Task Force, thinks those numbers are on the conservative side.

"This has been a growing problem since 2002, with last year being a sad record, but a record-setting year for Michigan," Edington told WWJ Newsradio 950's Beth Fisher.

Spring, he said, is a hot season for meth lab waste discovery in Michigan.

"The significance of this time of the year is that all of the meth waste that's produced during the course of the winter months — that the people making the meth dispose of by throwing into ditches and into wooded areas — as the snow melts and people go out and start cleaning their yards, start walking their dogs, they start coming across these dump sites," Edington said.

Edington said couple U.S. states have drastically reduced their meth problem with laws restricting the availability of pseudoephedrine, one of the components in meth.

Edington said the southwest Michigan region accounts for about 65 percent of the meth problem statewide.

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