Ed Drain, Amarillo’s new Chief of Police, is battling a city’s drug problem, the likes of which he says he’s never seen.
Drain recently moved from working as the assistant police chief in Plano. There, the problem was heroin, Drain says, but Amarillo is a different situation altogether.
“It is pretty much meth all day,” he says.
The addiction cuts across many demographics, and all ages, Drain says. And many known criminals have been tagged as “meth-heads” by detectives.
“Most of the meth that we’re seeing – it’s not in labs that are out in rural areas, it’s meth that’s coming in from Mexico,” Drain says. “We’re seeing it coming in as a liquid form and then they reformulate it here into a crystal-like substance that they sell out on the street.”
Drain says the police force will work with sheriffs’ offices from the two counties splitting Amarillo, churches, and groups like Mothers Against Meth.
“We’re going to try to get the word out more, do more education,” he says. “We’ve just got to get the word out more so that these young folks don’t ruin their lives with this stuff.”
Written by Beth Cortez-Neavel.
