METH LAB CLEANUPS IN S.C. COSTLY

LEXINGTON -- Methamphetamine use is growing in South Carolina and it costs
taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for authorities to clean up the
dangerous makeshift labs where the drug is made. Three years ago, only five
meth labs were found in the entire state, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. This year, 99 labs have been closed. In South Carolina, the
biggest meth problem is in the Upstate. In 2000, Greenville-area police
found 13 labs. So far this year, they've closed 77 labs - about 80 percent
of the labs found in the state. Through Aug. 31 of this year, the state had
racked up cleanup costs of $290,970. Cleaning up a meth lab, on average,
costs about $4,000. Almost anyone can set up a bathtub or kitchen lab using
detailed instructions from Internet sites or books, authorities said. In
rock form or in a confectioner's sugar-like powder, meth is a synthetic
amphetamine, similar to cocaine.

It's been around since the 1970s, but dealers recently have found a ready
market in South Carolina. Only crack cocaine is a more pervasive drug in
the state. Methamphetamine users call the drug crank or speed or ice. Two
things make meth a popular drug: It's a quick, long-lasting high, and it's
cheap. "It's a poor man's cocaine," said Lexington County Sheriff James
Metts. Some drug users start cooking meth when they figure out how easy it
is to feed their habit while making money. "That's the lure," said Demi
Garvin, a chemist with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. "There's a
huge profit margin."It costs about $75 to buy lab equipment, but most cooks
set up shop for less, stealing what they don't have. They use ordinary
household items such as rubber hoses, glass dishes, coffee filters and
plastic containers. "It's homegrown from Kmart," said Sgt. Darren Amick of
Lexington County's Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team. "When we go
into a lab, we're usually tripping over Tupperware." Police and
firefighters said they risk their lives every time they find one of the
chemical labs or even pieces of a lab. Household chemicals, such as paint
thinner and lye, and the common farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia used to
make meth are highly combustible. Turning on a cell phone can spark an
explosion. Meth cooks sometimes set booby traps around explosive labs to
prevent robberies and arrests. Meth makers usually head to the country to
produce the drug because of the strong chemical odor. Some people say it
smells like strong cat urine, a smell neighbors and police notice. "It's
the smell that a lot of times leads us to them," Lexington County's Amick
said. "It's a pure chemical smell.

There's nothing like it."