The Horry County Police Department is seeing a significant increase in methamphetamine across the county this year.
According to Captain John Harrelson, the department’s drug lab has processed more meth drug evidence this year compared to last year.
“I can tell you, from our chemist, what has been submitted to the drug lab to be tested, a substantial increase for the first six months of this year compared to the first six months of last year,” he said.
Harrelson said the police department has not determined the cause of the meth uptick, but explained the drug’s accessibility could be a factor.
“Meth is one of those where, unfortunately, it can be made from commercially available components and ingredients,” Harrelson said.
According to Harrelson, an increase in illegal drug activity can often lead to an increase in other crimes.
“Those are always the possibility that that could influence or increase property crimes or other types of crimes as a result of the narcotics trend,” he said.
He said it’s too soon to tell whether meth will continue to become more prevalent in Horry County. However, according to Harrelson officers see a continuing cycle of certain drugs becoming more popular for periods of times.
“There have been periods where meth has, at least to my recollection, been more popular, or been a more popular drug than others. And then it’ll seem to dissipate in the frequency we see it as law enforcement,” said Harrelson.
