METH WORKSHOP ALERTS PROPERTY OWNERS

Look around your house. Chances are quite good that it contains one or
more of the ingredients needed to manufacture methamphetamine.

When utilized separately, the numerous household products used by the
modern methamphetamine cook do not normally endanger the user. Mixed
together and heated over a hot plate or stove, however, these same
chemicals can be brought together to form methamphetamine, or "meth", a
powerful central nervous system stimulant first concocted by Japanese
chemists in 1919.

The latest generation of methamphetamine cooks have learned to employ a
variety of everyday chemicals and products in the manufacturing process.

Earlier successful government crackdowns on certain chemicals have
forced new manufacturing methods into being. The result is that
resourceful meth cooks have now turned to ordinary products containing
the chemicals they need to brew meth.

Using such bland items as cold and allergy medicine, camera batteries or
road flare caps, the modern meth lab is both easier to set up and use
than those of previous generations and produces a better end product.

Unfortunately for both the cook and the owner of the property being used
as a lab, the modern clandestine manufacturing process also leaves
behind both liquid and solid waste by-products. These remains are highly
toxic and dangerous to human health.

The recent proliferation of small, portable methamphetamine labs in
Lincoln County led the Lincoln Interagency Narcotics Team to host a
special workshop on the topic last Friday evening at the Lincoln County
Courthouse.

The workshop was aimed at those people who are most often affected the
manufacture of methamphetamine, including landlords, property managers,
and retail store owners. Topics covered included an explanation of the
modern meth lab, the chemicals used in the process, the high cost of
cleaning up a lab, and new legislation aimed at curbing methamphetamine
manufacture.

LINT legal counsel, Rob Bovett, and Oregon State Police Lt. Jerry
Palmer, LINT supervisor, and commander of the OSP Newport Patrol Office,
moderated a discussion, stretching over the course of several
informative hours.

Bovett said such a workshop would not have taken place a year ago. But
the recent upswing in the number of meth labs discovered in Lincoln
County has made the situation more urgent during the past few months. In
addition, the know-how needed to make meth is now so widely
disseminated, Bovett said, there is no longer any reason to withhold
information from the public which may allow people to aid law
enforcement.

"If you're here to learn how to make meth you're in the wrong class,"
Bovett told the audience, "But really, there aren't any secrets left to
teach anymore."

Three Generations Of Meth

There are two basic varieties of methamphetamine, Bovett said. One,
L-methamphetamine, is commonly used in asthma medication and is not
dangerous. L-methamphetamine is also known by the chemical name
L-deoxyephedrine. This is used to avoid the stigma associated with
methamphetamine.

The second variety is known as D-methamphetamine and is highly
psychoactive. Carrying with it a frightening potential for addiction,
D-methamphetamine is the potent stimulant sought by numerous users in
Oregon and the rest of the country.

The distinction is important, Bovett said, because 1960's era
first-generation clandestine
manufacturing methods succeeded only in turning out D-L-methamphetamine,
a hybrid product containing impurities. These labs also required
complicated chemistry equipment and expertise to operate.

For 20 years, methamphetamine was associated with biker gangs, Bovett
said. 'Crank', he
added, is another common nickname for the drug, and was derived from the
practice of hiding stashes of the drug in motorcycle crankcases.

In the mid-1980s, the scene changed. Strict new governmental regulations
meant chemicals formerly needed to brew meth were scarce.
Second-generation labs began to appear using a simplified formula and
easy-to-find household chemicals, including red phosphorus. The new
methods had an additional advantage: they produced relatively pure
D-methamphetamine.

Associated with large-scale drug trafficking organizations, Bovett said,
these second-generation "Red P" labs could produce large quantities of
methamphetamine, often as much as 20 pounds at a time. Law enforcement,
he added, still encounters these type of labs from time to time.

To really explain Lincoln County's current problem, however, Bovett
pointed to the latest generation of meth lab to crop up across the
country. These represent the third distinct generation of lab, and are
the work of a first-generation meth cook, Bovett said.

Having dug into old German patents for further inspiration, the cook
developed a startlingly simple process for making meth. Using a formula
patented in the 1940s, the cook adapted more household chemicals to
arrive at a method of manufacture which produces nearly pharmaceutical
grade methamphetamine. Police have dubbed third-generation labs "Nazi"
labs after the German connection.

"This is the really good stuff that users look for," Bovett said. "These
labs can't be made big, however, because they tend to blow up. The
manufacturers of these products never intended for you to combine them
all together."

This has led third-generation labs to become associated with local
methamphetamine users and dealers as the scale of production has reduced
and diversified.

And therein lays the problem, said Bovett. Because meth labs are now
typically smaller and easier to operate, they have become greater in
number as the information needed to cook the drug has become more widely
spread.

Common Items Used

Where once fragile glassware was required, meth cooks have over time
adapted numerous ordinary items into the manufacturing process.

Standard kitchen cookware and glass jars are used to mix and store
chemicals, while two-liter plastic bottles and turkey basters also find
use. Brake cleaner, de-greasers, drain cleaners, fertilizer and battery
electrolyte have all been incorporated into the process. When found
together, Bovett said, these types of products can often, but not
always, indicate the presence of a meth lab.

Another indicator of an active lab can be the smell. When combined in
the manufacturing process, these products combine to produce a strong
chemical odor, sometimes compared to acetone or ammonia. This contrasts
with early meth labs, which gave off the telltale odor of cat urine due
to the use of the chemical Phenyl-2-Propanone.

Toxic By-Products

The worst consequences of a meth lab, however, are created by the solid
and liquid wastes produced as a by-product of the manufacturing process.

Even if a lab is successful in properly making meth, Bovett said, a
significant amount of waste remains behind, often to be dumped into
sewer and septic systems or discarded out in the open.

With chemicals such as anhydrous ammonia, sulfuric and hydrochloric
acid, and a variety of common solvents involved, exposure to these
mixtures can lead to illness or even long-term physical damage in
humans.

The laborious cleaning process which follows the discovery of a meth lab
is also costly for property owners.

The immediate removal and disposal of chemicals found at the scene of a
meth lab is carried out and paid for by the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or in some
instances, the law enforcement agency involved in the case.

But the cost of cleaning up the rest of the mess falls to the property
owner. The Oregon Health Division requires any house, apartment, or
other property found with a meth lab on premises to undergo a rigorous
decontamination at the hands of one of 19 state-certified companies. And
before that property may be re-occupied, the Health Division must first
issue a certificate of fitness declaring the structure habitable.

This certification, which often involves extensive testing, can cost a
property owner several thousand dollars, and averages around $2,000,
Bovett said.

The average cost of actual clean-up after a functional lab tends to run
around $7,500, making the entire proposition extremely expensive.

Total costs for a property owner, Bovett estimated, can be as little as
$2,500 if no real physical cleaning is required, to as much as $30,000
or more for a severely contaminated site.

Cost recovery is often a problem for property owners. An owner can
attempt to obtain restitution from meth cooks for the cost of clean-up,
but, Bovett said, that often proves fruitless if the cook has no
resources to begin with. The only other real option, he added, is to
file a lawsuit against the cook, a path strewn with the same problems.

Further, many homeowners' insurance policies have exclusions for
chemical-related damages, Bovett said, rendering most policies useless
for paying for clean-up costs. Some newer policies specifically exclude
payment for meth lab damage.

Property owners can also run into problems with civil liability if they
permit the use of a property before it has been issued with the property
certificate of fitness, Bovett said.

What Can You Do?

Landlords on the lookout for meth labs on their property can look for
chemical odors, as well as other evidence of chemical use, including
discarded packaging or containers from precursor products. Discarded
plastic and glass containers which may have been used to mix chemicals
may be another sign.

Retail store owners should watch for people who purchase multiple
precursor chemicals at once. Someone who brings lithium batteries, rock
salt, and other solvents to the checkout counter at once may be
legitimate, or they may be involved in a meth lab somewhere.

Particularly critical to methamphetamine manufacture, Bovett related, is
Pseudoephedrine, found in common, over-the-counter cold remedies such as
Sudafed. People who attempt to purchase large quantities of cold
medicine, he said, may in fact be doing so in order to brew meth.

A new state law scheduled to take effect in October will introduce new
limits on the possession of products containing Pseudoephedrine.

With a majority of meth labs found in rental units, Bovett and Palmer
also urged landlords to become more selective in their choice of
tenants.

Another Lab Found

As if to underline the point of the workshop, LINT detectives, along
with a member of the DEA, on May 29, seized glassware, chemicals, and
residue associated with methamphetamine manufacture at a house near
Burnt Woods in east Lincoln County. Ricky James Bird, 36, was arrested
at the residence for Manufacture, Delivery and Possession of a
Controlled Substance II. He was also charged with Child Neglect I.

Also arrested at the scene was Allan D. Provores, 46, on an outstanding
warrant charging Possession of a Controlled Substance.