methamphetamines

"When we have residents coming back from treatment and ending up in the same housing they left we’re not assisting them in staying in recovery," said Rebecca Kaufman, Director of the Broome County Department of Health.

New gas masks acquired by Olean police should allow them to search meth labs more safely.

"It’s like we’ve learned nothing from the failures of our drug policies over the past 40 years... If we were to invest similar money into revitalizing social infrastructure and economic infrastructure and our educational system we would see long term benefits," said Shannon Monnat, sociology professor at Syracuse University, who specializes in public health.

About two years ago, meth started coming into the area in bulk shipments. Tioga, Chemung and Broome counties are now main destinations for meth coming from Mexico.