METH LABS ABUNDANT THIS HUNTING SEASON

Toxic Tools Pollute Nature As Makers of Drug Move Deep into Woods to
Escape Detection

Hunters stalking deer and pheasant also are finding methamphetamine
labs or their remnants in remote areas this fall.

Three Michigan hunters have discovered separate dumps of equipment
and chemicals used to make the illegal drug, says State Police Lt.
Chet Wilson. Hunters in Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee have made
similar finds.

The encounters can be risky, especially if someone is using the lab
when a hunter discovers it. Approaching meth users while wearing
"camouflage clothing and carrying a firearm can be a recipe for
disaster," warns a hunting handbook published by South Dakota's
Department of Game, Fish and Parks. It advises hunters to keep their
distance and avoid contact with the solvents and acids used to "cook" the drug.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that can be injected,
snorted, smoked or swallowed. It is made in home labs using cold
pills and other easily purchased ingredients. The process creates a
distinctive odor that's often compared to cat urine.

Federal and state laws restricting sales of cold tablets containing
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, key components of meth, have reduced
the number of labs, law enforcement officials say.

"Due to a new law that bans sales of pseudoephedrine off the shelf,
we have seen an extreme reduction in meth labs," says Rod Slings of
the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' law enforcement bureau.

Those who still make meth are moving to isolated areas to escape detection.

"Wildlife areas are a place cookers can go and not risk having the
neighbors next door turn them in," Slings says. Hunters there find
labs or meth dumps several times each season, he says.

Hunters occasionally spot "tweakers" making meth in rural areas, but
it's more common to find leftover equipment. Officials tell hunters
to look for ordinary plastic coolers with hoses, gas cylinders and
stained coffee filters. South Dakota's hunting handbook recommends
hunters look for lye, iodine, brake cleaner and stained cookware.

"Hunters come across a cooler or some other type of containers, and
they're curious, and they want to open them," says Wes Baxter, a
sheriff's deputy in Craighead County, Ark. A hunter there recently
found a cylinder with copper tubing, batteries and rubber gloves.

"We strongly encourage people not to touch these items," Baxter says.
Hazardous-waste removal teams often are called in to dispose of the
toxic equipment.

Natural resources and law enforcement officials use public-relations
campaigns to warn about the dangers of meth gear. The Minnesota Deer
Hunters Association sponsors public-service announcements on radio
stations each fall to warn hunters to be on the lookout for meth
labs. "How can people abuse our natural resources like this?" asks
Mark Johnson, the group's executive director.

Lt. Carl Lamb of the Seymour, Ind., police department has conducted
seminars for hundreds of area hunters and farmers. After the training
sessions, he says, "They recognize what to look for and know not to
mess with it."

Larry Dale, a hunter and hunting safety instructor in Petersburg,
Ill., says hunters can be "useful eyes and ears" for law enforcement
when they know how to identify meth-related equipment. The drug and
its makers, he says, are "a general menace to society."