Attorney General Jim Petro on Wednesday, April 13, joined Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander to unveil the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation's newest tools in the fight against methamphetamine manufacturing and abuse - four specially equipped clandestine lab response vehicles.

"These vehicles contain everything our agents would need to effectively respond to the scene of a reported methamphetamine lab," Petro said. "Because the materials used to manufacture meth are extremely dangerous, it's imperative that our agents be prepared for a variety of scenarios."

In recent years, the number of meth labs discovered in Ohio has continued to escalate. In federal fiscal year 2004, local law-enforcement officials throughout Ohio reported 354 methamphetamine sites to BCI. Nearly one-third of those sites - 113 - were discovered in Summit County.

Petro used a Methamphetamine Initiative Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to fund the response vehicles, which cost approximately $40,000 each, fully equipped. The vehicles - 2004 Ford F-150 4x4 trucks fitted with construction caps - are all equipped with self-contained breathing apparatuses, air bottles, fire extinguishers, portable decontamination units, portable generators, digital cameras, air-monitoring devices, evidence-sampling equipment, portable flood lights, air-purifying respirators and other protective gear.

Within BCI's Narcotics Division last year, Petro created the Clandestine Drug Lab Unit, which responds to reports of methamphetamine labs throughout the state and provides training for local law-enforcement officials. Using the same $794,000 federal grant that funded the response vehicles, BCI also has been able to provide certification training and protective equipment free of charge to many local officials.

"We are pleased with the assistance Attorney General Petro and BCI have been able to provide us," Sheriff Alexander said. "We have been - and will continue to be - very aggressive in Summit County in rooting out these dangerous clandestine labs and safely dismantling them."

Methamphetamine is an easy-to-make and highly toxic stimulant to the central nervous system. Because pseudoephedrine is commonly used to manufacture methamphetamine, Petro is working with the Ohio General Assembly on legislation that would place restrictions on the over-the-counter sale of the cold medication.