Gay handles most of the drug cases in the district attorney’s office. Since Jan. 1, 2014, they have prosecuted 200 meth-related cases.

“It’s a very big mess in Chippewa County,” he said. “It’s gone from marijuana, some cocaine and meth, to now (where) the meth outnumbers the marijuana in terms of use, although they’re often used together.”

There are some big differences between meth’s first go-round in the area and now. In the early 2000s, much of the meth being used in the county was being manufactured here.

“It was able to be more contained because we had the ability to intervene in those situations and get to the route issue,” Winter said. “In this particular situation, we now have it coming from the cartels in Mexico, so it’s being manufactured outside of the county, and in fact, the United States.”

He said meth use appears higher now, possibly because officials are more knowledgeable about it and tests are more sophisticated. Those tests have resulted in some extremely alarming results.

“Before, we weren’t able to see how it would directly affect children. Now we have the ability to test children, and in most cases if not all, the children have meth in their system,” Winter said.