A Casper-based meth trafficking operation was busted and 15 people were arrested.

. A Lyman man was arrested and charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.

. A Sheridan man is arrested and charged with delivering meth to a I7-year-old girl.

. A man is charged with conspiracy. in connection with a meth lab police busted near an elementary school in Casper.

. A man arrested in Riverton attacks a police officer; a search reveals methamphetamine paraphernalia in the man's car.

. A Gillette man facing child pornography charges was found in possession of crystal meth and with packaging materials used for distributing drugs. . Police confiscate three pounds of meth following a traffic stop on 1-80 near Rock Springs.

. Police in Rawlins discover a meth distribution ring operating out of a local motel room, six people arrested.

. A Glenrock man caught with 33 pounds of methamphetamine is sentenced to nine years m prison.

. The death of a Rock Springs man who died while fighting police officers was attributed to cardiac arrest related to amphetamine toxicity.

. A drug bust in Worland nets three arrests and a quantity of meth.

. The Wyoming Women's Issues Survey of over 1,000 women indicated substance abuse as one of the most serious problems facing women in Wyoming.

. Methamphetamine forums were held in Sweetwater, Natrona, Converse, Johnson, Washakie, Niobrara, Lincoln and Laramie counties and on the Wind River Indian Reservation to find local solutions to the growing meth menace.

A Wyoming sheriff blamed methamphetamine for the high population at his county's jail, saying 80 percent of those in custody had a connection with meth use.

. Fremont County institutes an anonymous "drug tip hotline" to help investigators with methamphetamine and other drug investigations.

. A new treatment center is opened in Jackson.

. Sweetwater County officials said meth arrests and prosecutions were stretching community resources to the breaking point.

. A number of abandoned houses that officials believed were used by meth users and dealers were razed in Casper.

Earlier in the year, authorities also shut down a major drug distribution ring, which had been operating in the Big Horn Basin for years, importing methamphetamine from Washington State and then selling it in Wyoming and Montana. Over 70 people were prosecuted in that long-running investigation involving the police departments in Cody, Powell and Lovell, plus state and federal officials.

It's not just law enforcement agencies that are concerned over the exploding use of the chemical drug. "It seems like meth users are getting younger," said Sonny Hodgdon, an addiction therapist at Southwest Counseling Center in Rock Springs. Noting that his treatment facility has clients from every comer of the state, Hodgdon said kids are starting "in their early teen years, and that didn't happen before." Hodgdon said meth use not only negatively impacts the user, "it's a spider web thing, too; it's not just one person affected, but nine or ten."

Hodgdon said he thinks Casper Police Chief Tom Pagel's estimate of upwards of 20,000 meth users in Wyoming could be accurate, "based on everything I've heard, but there's no real way to know;" Several state residents now in treatment for substance abuse have their own ideas how widespread the problem is.

"It's huge, it's everywhere, There are a lot of drugs in Wyoming, there is a lot of meth here," said Cody native Leanne. She said the word on the street is that many meth labs are located in Casper and Rock Springs, but that they exist in nearly every community. "When I heard an estimate of 10,000 meth users, I thought that should be just Casper," said Melissa, who grew up in the Oil City.

Kam, who was raised in the Bridger Valley but who now lives in Rock Springs, said he thought half of the state's residents have used drugs. Kam recently completed a drug rehabilitation program. Officials in Rawlins implemented a juvenile justice program with intensive probation to combat a growing law enforcement problem there. Seventy-five percent of the youth involved in the program are there because of drug and alcohol use, officials said late last year.

Among the cities increasing law enforcement efforts were Rock Springs and Sheridan, where new drug sniffing dogs were put into service.

Communities from Gillette to Laramie have all started community drug task forces or implemented special drug prevention education in their local schools.