METH LABS ON RISE AGAIN WITH EASY RECIPE

`One-Pot' Cooking Gains Popularity

Alabama is seeing a resurgence in methamphetamine labs, a reversal
from the decrease that followed a 2005 state law that made it harder
to buy the main ingredients, drug enforcement agents say.

More meth cooks in the past year have started using a simpler,
"one-pot" cooking method that takes fewer ingredients and can be
mostly completed in a two-liter plastic soft drink bottle, authorities
say. Jason Murray, commander of the Talladega County Drug Task Force,
said his agents have found 70 of the "one-pot," or "shake and bake,"
meth labs since October.

That contrasts with about 45 meth labs the task force found in all of
2007, he said. "It's like somebody turned on a spigot," Murray said.

Matt Germanowski, a supervisor in the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration's office in Birmingham, estimated that about 135
"one-pot" labs have been reported to the DEA statewide since October.
Many were found discarded on roadsides, he said. The number doesn't
represent a total number of labs found statewide, he said, because not
all are reported to the DEA.

Germanowski said "one-pot" labs have been found in Marion, Franklin
and Lawrence counties in northwest Alabama, and Randolph and Chambers
counties in east Alabama. Authorities in Cleburne, Calhoun and DeKalb
counties also report the problem.

Germanowski said the "one-pot" labs have not emerged as a significant
problem in Jefferson, Shelby and Tuscaloosa counties. "Meth is still a
rural drug," he said.

Randall Sanders, head of the drug task force for Calhoun and Cleburne
counties, said his task force found more meth labs, including
"one-pot" labs, during the first three months of this year than during
all of 2007.

Sanders said the "one-pot" method has been around a few years, "but
the people in this part of the country are just catching on to it."

Darrell Collins, head of the task force in DeKalb County, said the
group has found 26 labs this year, compared to 38 in all of 2007.
About half of the labs found this year are "one-pot" labs, he said.

Meth is a toxic, addictive stimulant that can be made from household
products, including paint thinner, batteries, iodine, matchbox strike
plates and drain cleaner. Methods and ingredients vary, but the
process requires pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, obtained from
over-the-counter decongestants and cold medicines.

In 2005, amid a rise in meth labs, especially in rural Alabama, the
Legislature passed a law requiring retailers to put pseudoephedrine
and ephedrine products behind counters. The law limited sales to six
grams of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine products. It required buyers to
show a photo ID and sign a log.

The DEA reported that the number of labs in Alabama fell from a peak
of 385 in 2004 to 127 in 2007.

The DEA's Germanowski said meth cooks are resorting to the "one-pot"
method, at least in part, because it's harder to get larger quantities
needed for bigger labs.

Germanowski said he also thinks enforcement efforts have reduced the
supply of imported meth, often called ice because it is
crystalline.

However, DeKalb County's Collins said imported meth remains a major
problem there. "We're covered up with ice," Collins said. "It's
getting a lot worse."

Collins said last year, out of about 26,000 grams of meth seized in
the county, about 16,000 were ice.

Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Randy Christian said a few
of the "one-pot" labs have been found in the county, but the number of
labs overall is down since 2005.

Lt. Cody Sumners, head of the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task
Force, said it has been more than a year since his task force has
found a meth lab.

Germanowski said emergence of the "one-pot" labs shows that addicts
will find ways to circumvent the law.

"You need to continue to educate the youth and the people out there on
the demand side," he said. "We can limit the supply, but once people
become addicted to it, they're going to find a way to get it."