NEIGHBORS FIGHT PREDATORS

Angry Westwood residents rightly want to drive out drug dealers after a
raid uncovered a methamphetamine lab the week before last.

Even a bloody pig's head left on her front step hasn't deterred Wynne
Dimock's leafleting crusade to reclaim the neighborhood.

The illegal lab in Westwood, a blue-collar, family-oriented southwest
Denver neighborhood, reflects a proliferation in the metro area of "box
labs" that can be set up in a motel room or storage locker to produce a
drug selling for $100 to $125 an ounce on the street. (Illegal meth
operations once were largely based in rural locations because the process
gives off offensive odors.)

Cooking crank also is hazardous - two women died Jan. 16 in an explosion
and fire blamed on a lab in a duplex basement. Meth byproducts are toxic
and make a dwelling a hazardous waste site unfit for human occupation,
according to Corey Nelson of the city attorney's office.

District Attorney Bill Ritter disputes neighborhood activists' assertion
that the labs are coming to Denver because of lax enforcement. "The Denver
police and our office take meth labs very seriously and respond to reports
about those," he said. "It is fair to say there's an increase in this type
of activity in both metro and rural areas across Colorado."

Denver busted 22 meth labs in 2000 and 38 last year. In the North Metro
area, the tally went from 45 in 2000 to 75 labs last year.

Tenants' privacy rights don't include breaking the law, says Assistant City
Attorney Jim Thomas, and property owners can be forced to evict drug
operations under nuisance laws. Owners actively involved in such activities
are subject to forfeiture.

Residents who care about their neighborhoods - like Dimock and her ally Jan
Belle - are the best line of defense against drug houses or labs: If they
call the cops often enough and the police respond effectively, the day may
come when these predatory purveyors of poison will have no place to hide.