OZARKS FARMERS GUARD VOLATILE AMMONIA

A Pivotal Ingredient For Meth-makers, The Gas Can Peel Off Skin, Collapse
Lungs Or Spur Blindness.

LAMAR - In Barton County there are more than 200 tanks of anhydrous
ammonia, ranging from towering to tiny - and Sheriff Bill Griffitt knows
where every single one sits.

Many of the cylinder-shaped tanks stand within the electronic gaze of
surveillance cameras. Others are hooked to alarms alerting law officers
whenever someone tries to tap them.

Why all this security over a thrifty, gaseous fertilizer? Because what
hardworking farmers must have for their fields, illicit drug manufacturers
must have to brew methamphetamine.

It's seemingly harmless as a fertilizer - farmers have years of experience
in handling it without danger - but anhydrous ammonia can be deadly as a
meth ingredient. If used or transported inappropriately after being stolen
from farm fields and refrigeration plants, anhydrous ammonia can peel the
skin from your body. It can melt the cornea of an eye. Its vapors can
collapse a lung.

Two Springfield men are still recovering from critical burns after a tank
of stolen anhydrous exploded in the back seat of the 1992 Pontiac Firebird
they drove Monday afternoon. Their tragedy validates what authorities have
preached since ready-made methamphetamine erupted in the Ozarks in the
early 1990s: Meth's cooking process is just as hazardous as the drug itself.

The explosion is also proof of another fact: No matter how loud the
warnings about the toxicity of chemicals used to make meth, dealers and
anhydrous ammonia thieves haven't heard them.

"You sit there and you tell them and you tell them and they don't listen,"
Griffitt said. "It's like those kids where the tank blew up. You could have
told them 20 times that could happen and they wouldn't have listened to
you. ... They'll keep stealing it."

What's poisoning their bodies is putting the public and scores of law
officers, first responders and bystanders at risk. Explosions of poorly
stored anhydrous can erupt near innocent people. And sloppy thieves often
leave tank valves open, releasing deadly gas into the air and soil.

Said Barton County Chief Deputy Shannon Higgins: "It doesn't take much to
have a nice-size anhydrous cloud cover the countryside."

Thefts are on the rise - primarily in rural Missouri counties such as
Barton, where the soil is deep and rich enough to support row crops.

In 1998, the Missouri Department of Health reported no evacuations or
injuries from theft-related anhydrous leaks. But during the first six
months of 2001, more than 120 people were evacuated from spills of the
toxic chemical. And at least seven people were reported injured.

Several law officers across the area, including two in Springfield and at
least one deputy in Greene County, have been rushed to the hospital in the
past three years after inhaling anhydrous fumes at meth labs.

"It literally sucked the air right out of my lungs. I couldn't breathe,"
said Sgt. Mark Deeds, describing being overcome by fumes when he walked up
to a pickup during a traffic stop in 1998. In the back of the truck lay a
Pyrex dish of meth in its final cooking stage - sprayed liberally with
toxic anhydrous.

"It hit me immediately, before I knew it," said Deeds, who blames the
incident for enduring upper-respiratory problems. "When I first noticed the
odor, I was overcome by it."

A cold, quick burn

It only takes one deep whiff of anhydrous to do a number on the body. The
burning, which spreads from the inside out, can start immediately. It's not
like a burn from a flame. It's a cold burn. A freezing burn.

It can freeze contact lenses to the eye. Clothes to the skin.

"As it expands, it's a refrigerant and it freezes tissues cold," said Dr.
Kenneth Larson, director of the burn unit at St. John's Regional Health Center.

"Anhydrous" means "no water." As the gaseous ammonia spreads, it is hungry
for moisture - and it drains it from any surface it touches. That includes
people.

Anywhere there is a mucous membrane, there is going to be damage. Lungs
have collapsed when anhydrous is inhaled. And people have gone blind after
a few days of exposure.

Physicians know how to treat anhydrous-related injuries, which calls for
different treatment from other burns.

But anhdyrous victims often don't tell physicans how they there harmed,
because telling the truth means spilling the beans on their drug making.

"They'll say my lighter fluid blew up; my stove blew up," Larson said.
"That handicaps our ability to help them. ... We're not trying to get
anybody into trouble. Our job isn't law enforcement. My job as a physician
is to take care of the patient. My obligation is to treat them the best I can."

That's tough to do when the patient is lying. "How can we treat them
effectively without knowing how they got burned?" Larson asked.

"I want people to realize the grave danger they are putting themselves in,"
Larson said. "I don't know that the people will hear the plea, but I wish
they would. I hate to see people, especially young people, get severe burns
or become blind because of poor judgment."

Typically, doctors treat patients for inhalation. Or they'll spy splatters
of burns on the body. The burn unit has seen an increased number of
suspicious burns, Larson said, a few with admissions that anhydrous is the
cause.

In the Ozarks, most exposures to anhydrous haven't been as severe as this
week's explosion. The two Springfield men were near death when authorities
arrived at the blast along U.S. 71 about 1:30 p.m. Monday.

Witnesses say the car was suddenly engulfed by a huge white cloud, which
billowed out both sides of the car as the two men opened their doors and
toppled out onto the ground.

The tank that blew was one used in recreational vehicles to store propane.
Two more were found, the kind used with gas grills.

Nozzles on all three had already turned a greenish blue, signs that the the
gas wasn't being properly stored and had eaten through the brass.

Other ingredients and equipment used to make methamphetamine also were
found in the car: ephedrine tablets, starting fluid, muriatic acid, a
vitamin blend used to cut the finished drug.

On Wednesday, nearly 48 hours after the explosion, the Firebird sat parked
in a towing garage in Jasper County, the doors and hatchback open to air it
out. Even more than 30 feet from the car, the still potent odor of the
ammonia could swiftly spur a headache.

Odors also came from the tank, a 12-inch slit near the seam revealing how
the gas escaped.

"All at once it just came out," said Sgt. Kent Casey of the Missouri
Highway Patrol. "All that pressure, it would have come out with a lot of
force."

'Meth is their religion'

Authorities believe the anhydrous that exploded was stolen. But they aren't
sure where from.

It could have come from Barton County or Vernon or Cedar - all have been
victimized by thieves for the past four years. Farmers in those areas are
paying the price.

Ron Bean has lost count of the number of times his and his brother's tanks
have been hit by thieves. The two, who are carrying on the family farm in
Barton County, have awakened to open valves, vandalized equipment and
telltale dead grass.

Farmers peek out their windows at dark making sure everything is all right.
During the day, they notice any and every car that drives by, knowing that
thieves stake out the tanks in daylight, then hit in the darkness.

"You listen and you watch," said Shaun Bean. "If a brand new 2000 Chevy
drives by, no, they're probably not (thieves). But if it's a beat up S-10,
yeah, it's a pretty good possibility."

Shaun Bean has chased three thieves in the past year. He and Ron take
precautions to safeguard their tanks. And they're fed up with the thieves
and don't believe the penalties they face are stiff enough.

Stealing or attempting to steal anhydrous is now a felony, and many of the
250 people convicted in Barton County over the past few years are getting
120-day sentences with more time possible.

But, Shaun Bean said, the thieving isn't about to end. Not until the
anhydrous is no longer needed to cook meth.

"We're pretty much stuck with the vermin coming out here," he said.

Brother Ron feels just as pessimistic.

"This meth is the most important thing in their lives," Ron Bean said. "You
may have families, go to church, have jobs. They are forsaking their
children, their wives, whatever religion they may have for it.

"Meth is their religion and they're sacrificing all for it. They don't care
who it hurts."

Driving thieves out

Anhydrous thievery has been going on in the Ozarks for about six years.
Formerly, cooks could rent tanks from refrigeration businesses or
fertilizer plants in any community. A pair of blue jeans and a ball cap,
and they could look just enough like a farmer with a legitimate use for the
gas.

But the easy-make meth recipe, which originated in the Ozarks and spread
across the nation, spurred an eruption of makeshift labs. As discarded
tanks littered the horizon, businesses caught on. They started working with
police and restricting the number of people allowed to rent tanks of
anhydrous ammonia.

As thefts grew more common, businesses started moving tanks inside, locking
them up and installing surveillance cameras. Springfield police worked
nonstop on stakeouts to snare thieves.

Word spread of where cooks shouldn't go, said Officer Kirk Manlove, who
worked in narcotics for more than four years.

"But word spread equally as fast when they'd find a honey hole of
anhydrous," said Manlove.

That's when Springfield's meth cooks headed to rural areas to tap into
anhydrous.

The majority of suspects arrested and prosecuted in Barton County have been
from the Springfield and Greene County areas.

Since late 1997, Barton County Sheriff Griffitt said his department has
investigated about 250 thieves who were later convicted. His deputies have
also combed fields for other thieves who escaped.

Griffitt shared one particularly memorable summer pursuit. One of his
deputies caught a suspect, a trooper nabbed another, but a third suspect
ran off. Deputies scoured the fields in the rain looking for the third.

Griffitt knew the suspect wouldn't get very far dripping wet and tromping
through the mud. So he got up early the next morning, a Sunday, donned his
overalls and drove the county roads in his Chevy pickup.

He spotted a young man, soaked and muddy, hitchhiking along the road.

"Want a ride?" said Griffitt, looking more like a local farmer than a
county sheriff.

The young man jumped inside.

"My deputy has been looking for you all night," Griffitt told the passenger.

The confused young man asked where they were headed. "To jail," Griffitt
said. "They miss you."

Not all arrests are this easy. Barton County's department is a state leader
in the enforcement of anhydrous thefts, but Griffitt and his deputies know
they can't let up.

For every thief busted, two more pop up, the sheriff said.

Despite increased security, more police attention and intensified
prosecution, authorities know it will be a long time before law officers
and farmers can rest easy.

"This meth - it's something that is absolutely killing us," said Sgt. Casey.

"We'd like to think we have a handle on it, but I'm afraid we don't."

Anhydrous Ammonia - Industrial Resources Group, Inc. Stop Drugs.org - The
Meth Crisis Life or Meth ABCNEWS.com: Impact of Methamphetamine Crystal
Meth Anonymous