"Probably 90 percent of the crime we investigate here we can track back to meth," said Lt. Phil Matteson of the Central Montana Drug Task Force in Great Falls.

Law-enforcement officials in 23 states in the West and Midwest said methamphetamine is their most serious drug problem.

According to the 2003 Drug Threat Assessment, 90 percent of 303 seized methamphetamine labs that produced 10 pounds or more of the drug at a time were located in the West and Southwest.

Detective Mark Overman of the Western Nebraska Intelligence & Narcotics Group said the making and selling of methamphetamine is widespread throughout the state's thinly populated and policed Panhandle region.

He said the latest trend is mobile methamphetamine labs in trucks or vans. "They like to just go out to a rural location in their vehicle, some place where they can see for quite a long ways," said Overman.

The methamphetamine problem is also evident in South Dakota's Black Hills, southern Idaho's farming region, and throughout Colorado.

"My God, I've never seen a problem like this," said Sgt. Jim Gerhardt, of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program in Denver. "I don't know where this trend ends."

Throughout the region, states are trying different approaches to address the problem. The Central Montana Drug Task Force is distributing brochures that inform farmers, ranchers, hunters, fishermen, and other residents about what to do if they stumble upon a methamphetamine lab.

South Dakota is holding a joint state and federal conference on the issue, while in northern Montana, public-service messages about the dangers of methamphetamine and methamphetamine labs are being aired on radio stations.

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