With the recent spike in the incidence of methamphetamine abuse in the nation, the use of meth in Wisconsin is garnering attention.

“Meth is the No. 1 drug problem that you will hear about from county sheriffs around the state,” said Kelly Kennedy, spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office.

Though the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation-Narcotics Bureau predicts fewer than 75 meth labs will be processed this year in Wisconsin, the number of individual meth cases is expected to increase from last year.

Not all areas of the state are equally affected by meth abuse.

“Without question, the northwest area of the state is being hit hardest by meth,” Kennedy said, mentioning Pierce, St. Croix, Polk, Barron, Burnett and Dunn counties.

Kennedy said meth labs are more common in rural areas because the labs are easier to conceal than in more densely populated places. Operating meth labs give off a telltale odor that is easily detected in urban areas. Kennedy also said the supplies needed to run a lab can be found in hardware stores, and recipes can be found online.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the number of methamphetamine labs processed by law-enforcement officials in the state is much lower than in neighboring states. A total of 90 labs were seized in Wisconsin in 2004, compared to 1,154 labs in Iowa, 904 in Illinois and 163 in Minnesota.

Kennedy attributes the lower incidence of meth use in Wisconsin to early prevention, such as the passing of laws regulating the sale of “precursor” substances and the inception of the Wisconsin Meth Initiative.

However, these measures have not solved the meth crisis in the state. In rural northern areas of the state, meth use has run rampant in the past five years.

“We first started being involved with meth cases in 2000, and, shortly thereafter, all hell broke loose for us,” said Bonnie Leonard, supervisor of the Polk County Public Health Department.

The drug was initially trafficked through the Twin Cities, making Polk County a “distribution hub” for the rest of northern Wisconsin.

“Our proximity to the Twin Cities is what caused the nightmare in the first place,” Leonard said. The meth trafficked through St. Paul and Minneapolis was likely manufactured as far away as California and Mexico, she added.

“We became known as the ‘meth capital’ of the state, and we became totally consumed by the meth issue,” Leonard said, adding that for a time, there were more meth cases in Polk County than the rest of the state combined.

Once meth established itself in the area, labs sprung up in northwestern counties.

Meth labs’ operation practices have changed in response to the attention, Leonard said. There has been an increase in mobile meth labs, he said, adding people who make meth have begun to manufacture the drug in separate steps at different locations to evade police suspicion.

Leonard said meth’s highly addictive nature and ability to cause severe depression are substantial roadblocks in fighting the drug’s use.

Meth use leads to other social implications, Leonard added.

“As soon as meth hits an area, there is a significant increase in domestic violence, sexual abuse and assault, and child abuse and neglect,” Leonard said.

She agreed, however, that state laws controlling the sale of precursor substances, like pseudoepinephrine and anhydrous ammonia has curbed the number of meth labs in the state, though individual use remains high.

“Meth use is unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Leonard said. “Everyone here knows someone who has been directly affected by meth, whether it is family or friends.”

Along with social costs, serious financial commitments have been made to deal with meth in Wisconsin. The state spends up to $1.5 million a year training officials to handle meth cases and lab busts, Kennedy said.

“We’ve been having routine summits for law enforcement,” Kennedy said. “So far, it has been a very successful initiative.”