DANGER WITHOUT WARNING

Area law officers raid a home last month in search of methamphetamine and
the chemicals used to make the drug.

Meth labs pose multiple threats

Pawnee County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Hill has had scary brushes with the
alarming growth of methamphetamine manufacturing in rural Oklahoma.

His first came in 1997 when he picked up a gallon jar of "funny- looking
liquid" during a search for stolen property.

"I didn't have a clue what it was," he said.

A telephone call to the state narcotics bureau provided the answer:
methamphetamine oil, an almost finished product of the highly addictive
meth powder.

"That's when I also learned how dangerous it was," Hill said.

Dangerous to make and touch or ingest, the meth oil also pointed to a
problem that confronts rural law enforcement agencies: clandestine meth
labs.

The number of seized "clan" labs has soared in Oklahoma in recent years.
Statistics show that the state ranks third nationally in the number of meth
labs uncovered by authorities. California (more than 2,000) and Missouri
(more than 1,000) had more, said Mark Woodward of the Oklahoma Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Almost 800 clan labs were reported in Oklahoma last year, according to
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation records. Remains of many more were
found but not reported because no defendant was involved. And 20 counties
reported zero clan labs to the OSBI.

Urban areas still report the most labs, as well as their attendant problems
of decontamination and arrests. But as urban law enforcers get tougher, the
clan labs move to rural areas where lack of law enforcers and resources are
common.

Pawnee County was no exception, Undersheriff Don Harzman said. From two
labs in 1998, he said, 13 labs were busted in 1999 by the sheriff's office
working with local town or tribal police.

And deputies raiding clan labs face not only hazardous chemicals, he said,
but freaked-out manufacturers armed with assault weapons, laser scopes,
night-vision goggles and gun scopes and booby traps.

Harzman said the evidence room had nine weapons when he started in the
sheriff's office last April. Now it has three dozen, most of them seized in
meth lab raids.

Booby traps -- nails in boards or cyanide capsules behind doors -- add to
the danger in raiding a suspected meth lab.

Fortunately, no deputy or lawmen has been harmed during the raids. Harzman
credited training required by Sheriff Dwight Woodrell to make sure deputies
were armed with cau tion and knowledge before each raid.

Osage County Sheriff Russell Cottle, who directs the Osage-Pawnee counties'
Drug Task Force, said 35 labs were found last year in Osage County, and
more than two-thirds were in rural areas outside metropolitan Tulsa.

"Dangerous chemicals are my biggest concern" in raiding meth labs, he said.
"We've always had booby traps, in marijuana fields or by bootleggers" in
years past, but they didn't use the caustic and common chemicals used in
meth labs, he said.

Cottle and other sheriffs use sales of forfeited assets to buy extra
equipment needed in drug busts.

Creek County Sheriff Larry Fugate said such equipment consists of
protective uniforms, masks and gloves.

Most sheriffs don't keep the meth chemicals they seize. The OSBI has to
clean up lab sites and dispose of the chemicals.

The U.S. House voted last week to spend $15 million to help states clean up
meth labs. In addition, the Oklahoma Legislature approved an appropriation
of $500,000 for the OSBI's cleanup effort. And state leaders also asked the
federal Drug Enforcement Agency to continue clean-up funding, now estimated
at $2 million a year in Oklahoma.

After his brush with the meth oil, Deputy Hill decided to learn more about
methamphetamine making and its dangers. He attended state and federal drug
classes.

One big lesson was that meth abusers are just as dangerous as the chemicals
used to make the "speed," "crank" or "ice." An addict is nervous and
paranoid.

Hill recalled making a routine traffic stop after he saw a vehicle swerve
repeatedly across a road. While trying to talk to the driver, Hill watched
in horror at a passenger who was "so tweaked out he was trying to load a
rifle."

"I was pointing my gun at him and yelling at him to drop the gun," Hill
said. "At the last second, he dropped the rifle . . . and averted a
tragedy."

Stan Florence, the president of the Oklahoma Sheriffs Association, noted "a
tremendous increase" in rural clan labs since 1996.

And the clan labs are getting smaller and more mobile, which makes it more
difficult to seize them, said Florence, the Grady County sheriff.

Most sheriffs don't have the ex pertise, manpower or resources to handle
the clan labs alone, he said. Often, sheriffs don't know a clan meth lab is
around until a farmer reports the theft of liquid fertilizer, anhydrous
ammonia. That's a main ingredient in making the stimulant.

Florence attended Gov. Frank Keating's meth summit last November. It drew
150 participants.

Several law enforcers wanted laws changed to make it a felony to steal
anhydrous ammonia and transport it in inappropriate containers (such as
portable propane tanks) when the intent is to make meth.

Florence said rural deputies are learning to cope with their limited
manpower and resources in combating the rural labs.

"But I don't think more aggressive law enforcement is the total answer" to
decreasing meth making and using, he said.

Educating families to meth's deadly addictive powers will help stop the
demand, he said.

"It all goes back to the families. We can't expect schools, churches or law
enforcement to handle it," Florence said. "By the time we get to it, it's
too late."

Ralph Marler, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8480 or via e-mail
at ralph.marler@tulsaworld.com.