By TRAVIS CRUM
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Officials said the number of methamphetamine cases in West Virginia is making a tremendous and deadly comeback, but long gone are the days of cooking the potent stimulant in trailers or in backpacks beside the road.
The production of meth is now being outsourced to sophisticated laboratories in countries like Mexico or China and then carted into the state. The result is a more powerful drug that goes hand-in-hand with West Virginia’s ongoing battle against opioid addiction. Law enforcement officials, who are seeing a leveling-off period of opioid addiction cases, must now deal with the new threat in the uptick of meth.
The number of meth-related cases is increasing because dealers who formerly dealt opioids, particularly heroin and fentanyl, realized overdoses are bad for business, said Mike Stuart, U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District.
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