Kalamazoo County has a problem with opioids but also with methamphetamine. Officials with the county say meth-related arrests have spiked in the last year.
At a county board meeting Tuesday, Kalamazoo sheriff Rick Fuller said that about 109 of the approximately 450 inmates now at the county jail are there on meth-related charges.
“One quarter of today’s jail population at the Kalamazoo County jail is there on meth possession. That is the increase we are seeing in our felony arrests,” he said.
County Prosecutor Jeff Getting says those arrests are for possession, not manufacturing.
“We are seeing a decrease in the number of methamphetamine lab cases in this community. Nobody’s making meth anymore. It’s all Mexican cartel “ice” methamphetamine,” he said.
Getting says other parts of Southwest Michigan as well as the Marquette area in the Upper Peninsula have also seen a surge in meth use.