In wake of meth lab raid, police note problem is growing worse

By D.a. Wilkinson

Manufacturing the drug can cause fire or toxic gases.

EAST LIVERPOOL — A methamphetamine lab raided this week is the fifth known to have been operating in Columbiana County since 2003.

“You know it’s getting worse,” Dan Downard, director of the Columbiana County Drug Task Force, said Friday of the drug problem in the county.

The members of the county drug task force along with representatives of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the county sheriff’s office, East Liverpool police and the East Liverpool Fire Department, took part in the raid Thursday morning.

Authorities said two people, Matthew Steiner, 36, and his wife, Christy Steiner, 30, were arrested at 729 Avondale St.

They were charged with illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, a third-degree felony.

Two of the three children in the family were at school during the raid. Downard said he assumed the youngest child was at the home at the time. The county Department of Job & Family Services placed the children with relatives.

Methamphetamine was not being made in the house at the time of the raid.

That’s good, Downard said, because the process of making the drug is extremely dangerous.

The process, called “cooking,” is “highly flammable” and can also create extremely toxic gases that can’t be detected, he said.

Earlier cases involving meth manufacturing were:

U2003: Charges were brought against a man who was making meth in Knox Township.

U2004-05: Authorities found signs people were making meth in a secluded parking lot in East Liverpool. No one was ever charged.

U2008: Authorities arrested a man who was making the drug in the back of his car. The DEA also conducted an investigation near Wellsville and discovered remnants of a lab. Those two men are facing charges.

The materials needed to make meth are available just about anywhere, Downard said, adding, “Just do a little routine shopping in your area.”

However, regulators have put a limit on what had been an over-the-counter medicine that contains one of the ingredients in meth.

Meth manufacturers can get the ingredients through prescriptions from doctors.

Meth can be either smoked, swallowed or injected.

Downard added, “A meth addiction is a pretty good addiction.”

County Prosecutor Robert Herron could not be reached. He has spoken out about the county’s growing drug problem.

A group is being formed in the county — as part of a statewide program — to come up with a long-term plan to fight chemical abuse in the county.

wilkinson@vindy.com