METHAMPHETAMINE COOKS' INGREDIENTS CHANGING ALONG WITH TIMES, LAWS

Lubbock police Officer Byron Gray holds out photocopied papers seized
on the scene of a methamphetamine lab bust.

Scribbled between twisted doodles are the ingredients and instructions
to make methamphetamine in a lab.

"Basically what you've got is Dumb and Dumber working with complex
chemical reactions," Gray said.

The process to make meth is not simple, and combines danger from toxic
and volatile chemicals. For example, the ingredient lithium explodes
when it comes in contact with water.

Today, meth producers in Lubbock have moved away from producing meth
with red phosphorous and poly 2 propylene (P2P) because the law pushed
makers to find new ways to make meth.

In the late 1980s, federal law made it more difficult to obtain the
ingredients to make P2P and red phosphorous meth.

The ready substitutes were ephedrine tablets.

Authorities say the majority of Lubbock's labs use the more readily
available ammonia hydroxide gas -- which uses the ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine.

If anhydrous ammonia can't be obtained, some officers have seen makers
attempt to make similar gases at higher temperatures.

By dropping foil in a container with muriatic or hydrochloric acid, a
chemical reaction takes place that a meth maker can use to make meth.

Any of the labs can squeeze into a kitchen or be set up in a garage.

"If they think we're watching their house, they'll go into one of
those storage units," Texas Department of Public Safety Capt. Joe
Longway said of meth cooks.

Such a lab can produce from 1 to 4 ounces at a time.

Easily obtainable ingredients such as starter fluid, paint thinner,
driveway cleaner or drain opener go into the production of meth,
including over-the-counter ephedrine-laced products, such as
decongestant tablets.

In one meth lab bust Wednesday night in New Deal, left behind were
blister packs of such products and a decongestant package.

The remnants of the multiagency bust left behind test kits on a
tabletop, along with Mason jars, foil and starter fluid containers.

Law enforcement officials say the products are indicative of what it
takes to get a meth lab in operation.