The opioid epidemic continues to dominate the national drug debate, but another threat is becoming more prominent along the east coast. 

The Horry County Police Department’s drug lab processed close to 400 percent more meth evidence in 2018 compared to 2017. 

In 2017, Horry County police processed 89 items of meth evidence. In 2018, that number soared to 431. So far in the first couple months of 2019 they’ve processed more than 70 items. 

“It is surprising to see, even for us, how dramatically it increased from 2017 to 2018,” Capt. John Harrelson with HCPD said. “And it appears to be on-pace to maintain that very large increase going into 2019.”

The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act passed in 2006 by Congress got domestic lab seizures to some of the lowest rates in fifteen years. But the problem never really went away; it’s just been placed on the back-burner. 

“Unfortuantely our investigators have encountered individuals that believe for whatever reason that meth is safer than opioid use,” Harrelson said. “We as law enforcement would tell you that that’s a misconception, that, you know, any illicit or illegal drug is inherently dangerous.”

Harrelson said it’s hard to nail down one exact cause of the surge but said that the accessibility of meth may play a part.

Horry County Police rarely encounter big drug labs or operations anymore. Harrelson said people are producing meth in “one pots.” He explained those as, “very small, very mobile containers that they basically create the chemical reaction in that and produce meth.”

While domestic meth labs have steeply declined, more meth is on the streets today. 

A 2018 DEA report highlights that Mexican cartels are churning out a product that’s cheaper and purer than ever. 

That same report notes that meth is expanding in prevalence to the east coast. 

The cartels are producing so much meth that they’re looking outside of areas already strongly impacted by addiction, like the midwest and pacific northwest, and are targeting new markets on the east coast. 

In Horry County, Harrelson said heroin and fentanyl continue to be the most common drug that police encounter. Recently, meth has jumped right behind in third and sometimes second place.