After devoting a couple of dozen years to law enforcement in Pierce County, Lt. Randy Sweem counts the days until he can retire from the Sheriff's Department and move his children far away from the madness of meth. None matters like meth.
Pierce County is in a world of hurt already.
Perhaps it's because the county is still so rural, and isolated areas are conducive to meth-making because it produces such rancid odors. Perhaps it's because I-5 runs up the west side of the county, and the Mexican organized crime families ship meth along with cocaine, heroin and marijuana. The other confounding mystery is why King County has escaped meth's grip to the extent that it has. While Pierce County is near the top of the meth wave, King County doesn't even crack the top 20. Through the first 10 months of 1999, King County asked the state Department of Ecology, which handles the meth lab wastes for all counties, to deal with 78 labs.