Statewide seizures of methamphetamine labs appear to be down for the second year in a row in 2003, but Kansas law enforcement officials aren’t ready to say the war against the addictive drug has been won.

“We’re hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that the number of meth labs is going down,” said Kyle Smith, spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

KBI statistics for all but December show that meth lab seizures last year totaled 482. The final total for 2002 was 728, and for 2001 it was 847.

The seizures include what are considered to be full labs as well as meth lab dump sites and the discoveries of partial labs, such as small amounts of chemicals, glassware or other equipment used to make methamphetamine.

The statistics rely on local law enforcement agencies to accurately report to the KBI their meth lab seizures. That’s why the statistics could be deceiving.

“It could be that the local agencies are not reporting them or they will wait until the last minute,” Smith said.

But even if local police or sheriff’s departments have late reports coming from December, they are unlikely to bring the yearly total anywhere near totals of the previous two years, Smith said.

In Douglas County, the KBI statistics show there were seven lab seizures through November in 2003. That is down from 13 in 2002 and 10 in 2001.

“Since we started seeing meth here in 1995 and 1996, I haven’t seen any big reduction,” said Lawrence Police Sgt. Tarik Khatib, who supervises a drug investigation team that includes police and Douglas County Sheriff’s officers.

On the other hand, Khatib thinks law enforcement, with the help of the community, is making progress in the war on methamphetamine makers.

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Khatib noted that personnel at retail stores where items that could be used to make meth are sold have become better at reporting to police customers who try to make large purchases of those items. The most common examples are various sinus medications that contain pseudoephedrine, used in meth.

“If somebody tries to buy six boxes of Sudafed they call us and we question them (buyers) and find out they were going to use it to cook meth,” Khatib said. “We get a lot of it before it happens.”

At the same time, meth cookers operate differently than they used to, Khatib said.

“Now they’ve got smaller, cold-cook methods that don’t put out the pungent smell that they used to,” he said. “They can cook it out in the country, a garage or a hotel room in smaller quantities and they don’t attract a lot of attention.”

Southeast Kansas has a history of being a hot spot for meth makers. In Cowley County 56 meth labs were seized through November, and 48 in Butler County. Cherokee County authorities seized 33 labs, and in neighboring Crawford County 26 more were seized.

“It’s kind of like an infection and we haven’t found a way to inoculate against it,” Smith said.

But Smith also noted that Southeast Kansas has an effective drug task force of officers from 25 agencies and the KBI conducting investigations in that area.

“When you see a large number of seizures that isn’t necessarily bad, and when you see a small number of seizures that isn’t necessarily good,” Smith said.