METH LABS AGAIN ON THE RISE IN OKLAHOMA

The one-pot recipe for methamphetamine is spreading and the addiction
isn't stopping in Oklahoma.

Only rumors hint at the origins of a recipe poisoning
Oklahomans.

Some credit a college chemistry student paid to perfect the process.
Others say incarcerated drug cooks created a new method. However it
came about, the "one-pot" or "shake and bake" process of cooking
methamphetamine is spreading.

By May's end, law enforcement officers reported seizing nearly 300
meth labs, putting the state on track to exceed the 743 labs found in
2009, data from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
Control shows.

The majority of the labs seized now are one-pot labs, said Darrell
Weaver, executive director of the bureau. Most are located in
northeast Oklahoma and around the Tulsa area.

Bureau records show in May law enforcement officers in Oklahoma City
seized a single one-pot lab while their counterparts in Tulsa found
23.

But the trend is far from contained since the components are cheap and
easy to find, he said. A 20-ounce water bottle, pseudoephedrine, camp
fuel, chemical ice packs and other common materials are all it takes
to produce the drug. Recipes for the process are easy to find online,
along with videos showing step-by-step directions.

What's left behind from the volatile cooking process is small, but
what the addiction leaves in its tracks isn't.

So far this year, the state medical examiner's office has identified
26 deaths associated with meth, ranging from overdoses to accidents
while cooking the drug. Last year, 68 such deaths were identified and
those numbers could go up as more reports are completed, said Cherokee
Ballard, spokeswoman for the agency.

In a recent example from late June, 48-year-old Nathan L. Knapp, of
Luther, suffered third-degree burns and later died following what
investigators have called a botched attempt to cook meth by the
one-pot method. Two other individuals were later charged in connection
with the incident and a 2-year-old boy was taken into state custody.

Not profitable

Unlike the large and sophisticated labs of the late 1990s and early
2000s, the small and mobile one-pot labs aren't moneymaking
operations. No chemists are needed. They're instead thought to be a
cook's means of feeding an addiction.

"A lot of the cooks won't even take money," said one undercover
narcotics agent who works around the Tulsa area. He asked that his
name be withheld to protect his identity and the integrity of the
cases he's currently working.

"They trade in pseudoephedrine," he said. "Their lives become about
cooking."

The agent said he's seen operations where one cook with a setup of $30
or less will work out deals with as many as 10 people to score
pseudoephedrine. They will bring the decongestant, and the cook will
then split the dope.

More from Mexico

Since laws restricting pseudoephedrine sales went into effect in
mid-2004, the large, clandestine labs have dried up while the small
labs have surged. In the year before the law being passed, more than
1,200 labs were found in the state. That number shrank by nearly 90
percent until the incidence of one-pot labs picked up around 2008. To
supply the continued demand, Mexican cartels have entered the state,
selling a crystallized, smokable version of meth called ice.

On June 29, state drug agents arrested Alberto Gomez-Gomez, 35.
Investigators allege the suspected Mexican Sinaloa Cartel member was
in Oklahoma to establish a base in what is considered the territory of
the rival Juarez Cartel.

Prosecutors claim that Gomez-Gomez distributed about 70 pounds of meth
into Oklahoma between March and June. The drugs could bring as much as
$1.26 million depending on the purity. More than a dozen others were
arrested in connection with the sweep.

Mark Woodward, spokesman for the state drug agency, said about 70
percent of the meth consumed in the state is being transported up
state highways and interstates from Mexico.

"We still have to deal with the meth addiction here before any of this
goes away," he said.

What's being done

A state tracking system has blocked 54,349 sales of pseudoephedrine
since a law requiring birth dates and in-state driver's licenses to
buy it went into effect last November. Weaver said as many as 60
percent of those blocked had prior criminal records. Many had previous
drug charges.

A new law effective in November will prevent people previously
convicted of meth-related crimes from buying pseudoephedrine for up to
10 years.

Making pseudoephedrine a prescription drug isn't off the table, but
the new law is one more way to curb access to the meth-recipe
cornerstone, Weaver said.