SPEAKER: METH TAKES 'HUMANITY OUT OF THE HUMAN'

Forensic Hygienist Makes Presentations On 'Clandestine' Meth
Labs

A "tweaker" to-do list, highlighted Tuesday in a presentation by a
forensic hygienist, underscored the scattered and potentially
dangerous mind of someone locked in a cycle of methamphetamine addiction.

At first glance, the list appeared harmless - that is, until reading
the last item.

It was a reminder for the user to kill a woman and kidnap
another.

"This drug," said Caoimhin Connell, owner and operator of Bailey-based
Forensic Applications and a law enforcement officer, "really, truly
takes the humanity out of the human. It is so destructive.

"We've never seen anything quite like it."

Connell made three public presentations Tuesday at Mountain West
Insurance, 100 E. Victory Way in Craig, on methamphetamine and
clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. Communities Overcoming Meth
Abuse, a local group designed to help eradicate area meth use, sale
and production, sponsored the presentations.

The to-do list, captured in a photograph and shown in a slide show
Tuesday, was one of several that illustrated the dark and dangerous
side of methamphetamine use and production.

The pictures showed a mix of meth labs, some with elaborate production
methods, and others cheap and crude, but all sharing the same trait of
being dangerous environments, Connell said.

Potential hazards of meth labs include contamination, explosion, fire,
injection and trauma, among many others.

Connell talked about a home, doubling as a drug den, where a
5-month-old baby had died. Traces of methamphetamine were found
throughout the house, he said, and on every sample tested.

It is also common, Connell said, to find many meth labs with "booby
traps" to deter thieves and authorities serving search warrants. He
cited trip-wired explosives, pipe bombs, bottles of acid, rigged
firearms and "whatever you can imagine" as traps he's seen employed
before.

"Where we've got meth," said Connell, who has worked about 80 meth
labs, "we've got weapons. It's just that simple."

He estimated there could be 8,000 to 12,000 meth labs in the state.
Their commonality stems from varying size - some labs are small enough
to fit into a box and therefore mobile - and the high return against
the cheap cost of buying the ingredients.

"Meth labs can be anywhere - cars, porta potties, rental storage
sheds," Connell said. "Pretty much anywhere you can put a person, you
can put a meth lab."

Another photograph in the presentation, taken in a single aisle at a
grocery store, showed how easily materials for meth labs can be
acquired. Connell called the photo, which included solvents, lighter
fluid, matches, fuel, salt and filters, "one-stop shopping."

Two aisles over, he said, someone could purchase pseudoephedrine
tablets and be ready to cook.

"It's amazing," Connell said looking at the photo of the grocery store
aisle. "There's a meth lab."

Signs of possible meth labs, Connell said, are unusual quantities of
household products, structural modifications that "don't make sense,"
unusual ventilation or plumbing systems, disabled smoke detectors and
burns, among others.

If anyone wants to test a room or area for methamphetamine
contamination, Connell suggested dampening a cotton swab with rubbing
alcohol, wiping at least a one-square-foot area, in several locations,
and sending the sample off to a laboratory for analysis.

"For under $300, you've tested the walls," he said.

For more information about Connell's company and methamphetamine lab
recognition, visit www.forensic-applications.com.