While clandestine methamphetamine labs in Wisconsin have decreased by 90 percent in recent years, the availability and use of methamphetamine continues to be a serious problem, particularly in the northern part of the state. Despite diminishing resources, we have continued to fight meth with education and cooperative law enforcement efforts led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.

Meth is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. The drug can be smoked, injected, snorted or taken orally. Chronic use changes how the brain functions and can cause anxiety, insomnia, violent behavior, paranoia, hallucinations and delusions.

Users can lose the ability to process information, leading to bad decision making. The result is often violent crime and theft. Meth use devastates families and children. All too often, parents on meth choose the drug over their own children’s well being.

Legislation, law enforcement, and public awareness have contributed to the decline in meth labs. The drug is now predominately manufactured in Mexican “super labs,” imported into the U.S. by Mexican drug trafficking organizations and distributed through distribution networks already set up to move cocaine and marijuana. The domestic labs are down, but the drug is still being trafficked and used, and the effects are still being felt in Wisconsin communities.

The potential exists, however, for domestic labs to re-emerge as the primary meth production source. Mexico is taking significant measures to control the importation of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, and some organizations are now finding it easier to acquire the chemicals needed to produce methamphetamine in the United States. Super labs are now appearing in the western United States.

As meth manufacturing becomes more difficult in Mexico, it becomes comparatively easier to manufacture in the United States. By exploiting loopholes or creating new production methods, criminals are finding ways around recently enacted legislation that tries to control access to the chemicals needed to produce methamphetamine.

While Wisconsin has not seen a resurgence of meth labs, other states are once again seeing their numbers rise significantly. States that had reallocated their clandestine laboratory response resources are now finding that they need to get those resources back to combat meth labs.

Wisconsin must not rest on our victories in the fight against clandestine meth labs only to join the ranks of states scrambling to fight meth labs all over again. We must stay a step ahead of the criminals and remain prepared for increased clandestine lab activity.

As attorney general, I’ve done that. When the Wisconsin Department of Justice lost over $1 million in expected federal funding that had previously gone toward methamphetamine enforcement — funds that Sen. Herb Kohl fought hard to get and keep — I froze positions and reallocated resources within our agency to minimize any adverse impact these funding decisions would have on our established methamphetamine enforcement programs.

Fighting meth is more than cops on the street and hazardous chemical cleanup teams. It’s education as well. Employing these tools together, Wisconsin’s methamphetamine numbers are substantially lower than our neighboring states. Citizens and law enforcement having information about methamphetamine, its effects, signs of abuse and clandestine laboratory activity have greatly assisted Wisconsin’s fight against methamphetamine.

We all need to continue to seek information on the changing drug trends in Wisconsin. Suspicious criminal activity needs to be reported so we can stay a step ahead. As attorney general, I will allocate our Division of Criminal Investigation resources appropriately to assist local law enforcement and other agencies that provide support to drug endangered children. I will also work with legislators to ensure that meth users cannot exploit loopholes in existing law.

Working together, we will strive to keep our communities safe and drug free.

J.B. Van Hollen is Wisconsin’s attorney general.