NUMBER OF METH LABS GROWS IN MICHIGAN

Methamphetamine production continues to plague Michigan, especially
the Southwest section of the state, according to statistics collected
by a statewide enforcement team.

Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Tony Saucedo, unit commander of
the Lansing-based Methamphetamine Investigation Team, said the number
of meth labs seized in Michigan has increased 60 percent from this
time last year. In Southwest Michigan, the increase has been closer
to 70 percent, he said.

According to statistics as of June 26, 52 labs were found in
Kalamazoo County. In all of last year, 40 were found, the most of any
county in Michigan, and that number is up from just one lab seized in
2000, according to statistics from the Michigan Methamphetamine
Prevention Project.

"It's just always been a hot spot there," he said. "It's the same
thing with Allegan."

Other area counties have not been as problematic for law enforcement,
but neither have they been immune. Statistics show Barry County,
which had zero labs seized in 2000, had four labs seized this year,
the same number as Branch County, which had just three discovered in 2004.

Calhoun County, which saw a big jump in the number of labs in 2004 --
nine, up from just two the year before -- hasn't had any labs
discovered so far this year, the state's numbers show.

Detective Lt. Wayne Edington, team commander for the Southwestern
Enforcement Team, an undercover drug unit, said meth is a drug that
causes a double hazard for law enforcement. Not only do officers,
troopers and deputies need to worry about a person who is potentially
using and selling a drug, they also need to worry about the hazardous
materials associated with manufacturing meth, he said.

"For every one pound produced, it makes six pounds of methamphetamine
waste," he said.

The drug often is made with anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer commonly
used by farmers that can be dangerous to handle. Since companies
producing the chemical have started adding "GloTel," a bright pink
dye intended to deter thefts, Edington said meth producers have
switched to a red phosphorous method, but this produces a deadly gas.

He said drug makers aren't concerned about where this waste is left.
Edington said his team found three discarded labs in and around
playgrounds. They've found them in hotel rooms. Law enforcement is
training waste management workers to protect them from the hazards
the drug waste causes, he said.

"They dump it without concern to anybody at all," he said.