METH LABS MOVE TO FORESTS

Ashford, Wash. In the Tahoma State Forest in the shadow of Mount Rainier,
hikers and hunters have been displaced by men in moon suits searching for
contamination from methamphetamine labs and roping off sickly brown "dead
zones" where meth making's poisonous byproducts were dumped.

It's part of what authorities say is a national trend; As police crack down
on methamphetamine in cities and towns, makers of the highly addictive drug
are moving to vast, lightly patrolled state and federal forests to set up
their labs. The number of busted meth labs increased tenfold over the past
year in Washington state alone.

"It poses a danger to anyone out there in the woods," said forester Bob
Brown of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, "Somebody could
get killed or injured very badly by this stuff."

The simplicity of making meth, cheap to produce, with a potent high, has
fueled its popularity. When users eat, inject or snort meth it makes them
feel euphoric, energized and powerful. Addicts can go days without
sleep. But the drug's downsides strike quickly: irritability, paranoia,
aggression and violence. The Tahoma forest was closed last month until at
least June 10 after lab including open containers of solution with a pH of
14, corrosive enough to burn flesh off bones. A blast of anhydrous
ammonia, a meth ingredient that leaches moisture from whatever it touches,
could "take you eyeball and shrink it down to the size of a raisin," says
Ashford Fire Chief Jim Gregory. Closing an entire forest for a meth lab
cleanup was a first in Washington, and no national forest has ever been
shut down because of meth, said Kim Thorsen, deputy director for law
enforcement and investigation at the Forest Service.