Methamphetamine in Maine timeline

1996-98

. Aroostook County is inundated with methamphetamine from the western United States.

. Seizure sizes increase to as much as 7 pounds.

. More than 70 people are arrested over the two-year period.

1998

. Maine Drug Enforcement Agency works with DEA Boston to shut down a methamphetamine lab just outside Houlton which was loosely tied to the Hells Angels.

1999

. MDEA sends the first six members of its lab team – five agents and a chemist – to Virginia for training and certification. Members are attached to DEA’s Boston-based lab team.

September 2000 to April 2005

. Nine labs seized and dismantled in Maine.

2005

. MDEA sets up its own Maine-based lab team with a complement of three certified chemists, 12 agents and a response vehicle.

. MDEA partners with the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory and Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

. Maine Department of Labor certifies MDEA’s lab response policy and procedures.

. Maine Attorney General’s Office moves legislation through to place meth precursors (products containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine) behind the counter. The sales of those products are logged by the pharmacy. Congress follows suit with the Combat Methamphetamine Act soon after.

April 2005 to June 2007

. 38 reports of suspected labs are investigated. Of those, 10 result in a partial or complete call-out of the lab response team, which consists of MDEA officers. Some of those officers are assigned to the team on a temporary basis and made available by their individual departments as needed. MDEA pays for the officers’ training and necessary overtime if they’re called to respond to a report.

2006

. U.S. Attorney’s Office, in cooperation with a number of agencies, introduces Maine to the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.

. MDEA and the Department of Health and Human Services develop DEC protocols and with the assistance of the U.S. attorney hold a follow-up cross-training of employees.

. MDEA in Aroostook County starts to see a spike in cases involving methamphetamine tablets – all of which originate in Canada.

Source: Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, compiled by BDN reporters Jennifer Hersey and Aimee Dolloff.