News Editor

The Pike County Sheriff’s Department put another notch on its belt for closing another methamphetamine lab in Pike County and seizing its contents.

The Pike County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant Friday night at the residence of Michael Quinn Wilson, Rt. 2, Box 89B, County Road 99 in and arrested four Pike County residents for drug-related crimes.

Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas said Wilson, 34, was charged with trafficking methamphetamines, and is being held in the Pike County Jail on $50,000 bond. Christopher Lamar McCafferty, 27, of 985 Pike County Road 94, Troy, was charged with possession of marijuana second degree and is being held in the Pike County Jail on $1,000 bond; James Douglas McCall, 29, of 985 Pike Co. Road, Troy, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and is being held in the Pike County Jail on $1,000 bond; and Quinton Hughes Baxter, 18, of 166 Lightner Road, Ariton, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, and is being held in the Pike County Jail on $1,000 bond.

"Methamphetamines have hit Pike County in epidemic proportions," Thomas said. "It is the worst drug we have ever seen in the county, and we are working extremely hard to do our part to minimize the problem."

When the search warrant was executed, deputies with the Pike County Sheriff’s Department, found the tell-tale signs on methamphetamine production. Thomas said items in the residence consisted of five containers of meth oil, $1,522 cash, chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamines including iodine, Sudafed and acid, one hand gun, one shotgun, containers for cooking and drying methamphetamines and two microwave ovens.

Thomas said the production, distribution and use of methamphetamines "festered" about a year ago.

"We get calls about drug activity everyday," Thomas said. "We encourage people to call, but what we need is legislation to make iodine and pseudoephedrine (active ingredient in Sudafed) a controlled substance for it is not so easily purchased."

Thomas said methamphetamines sell for about the same as cocaine.

"There is a huge demand for it,"he said. "There is a lot manufactured and sold. And people don;t stop. After they are arrested and make bond or are released from whatever sentence they do it again. I don’t really know of any that have stopped using it."

Thomas said Pike County is not the only county that has problems with methamphetamines. He said methamphetamines are bad in Coffee, Covington, Geneva and many of the other counties in the state.