Eau Claire (WQOW) - Just weeks after a meth bust in Dunn County, the state's top cop makes a stop in the Chippewa Valley.
Two weeks ago an active meth lab was found at a Menomonie business. Four people were arrested. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says the number of meth labs in western Wisconsin has dropped the past few years, but says meth users are now finding different ways to make the drug.
"There's a new methodology for creating meth at home that is really increasing and it's really catching on and it's a method where they're just making it in a bag. Its something that's very simple to do and unfortunately because of that we're finding an increase in the homemade production of methamphetamine," says Van Hollen.
We don't know if this was the method the suspects were allegedly using to make meth at the Menomonie business. Van Hollen says another drug, heroin, is also becoming more widely used across the state.
WQOW News 18 asked him about health care reform. A few weeks ago Van Hollen asked lawmakers and the governor to join a lawsuit opposed to the health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama in March. The governor rejected the effort. Van Hollen claims that requiring all citizens to have health care coverage is unconstitutional. He says as long as he's attorney general and the lawsuit has merit, he'll fight to join it.
"The part of the federal law that we believe is most egregiously unconstitutional doesn't go into effect until early 2014. Obviously, with lawsuits that have already started around the nation we could join and with the long time we have between now and that part of the law is initiated or implemented, we have plenty of opportunity to still get involved in litigation," says Van Hollen.
More than a dozen states are part of the lawsuit. Van Hollen is up for re-election this year. He's being challenged by Scott Hassert, a democrat from Lake Mills. As you know the Governor Jim Doyle, who rejected his request to join the lawsuit, is not running for re-election.
Van Hollen was on his way to Barron County to meet with students and parents to talk about online predators. Since he took office, the number of agencies belonging to the 'Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force' has grown from 22 to 137.
