METH CLASSES

Intensive Training Aids in Meth Lab Clean-Up Education for Local Officers

Alen Gregory, with the state fire marshal's office, is silhouetted
against a computer image of an anhydrous ammonia tank as he speaks to
a class of law enforcement officers last week in Hopkinsville.

Different ingredients used to make meth are shown during law
enforcement training last week.

HOPKINSVILLE -- Police cars and emergency vehicles converged on a
building near the airport last week as methamphetamine ingredients
were being hauled in and out of the low-lying structure.

However, no arrests were made since the activities were part of a
re-certification program concerning illegal methamphetamine
laboratories carried out by the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force.

The program is carried on within the guidelines of Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA), and to the western Kentucky police
departments methamphetamine is a serious business.

"We do it so we can have an adequate number of trained officers to
deal with these labs," said Cheyenne Albro, director of the task force.

Albro said the classes insure that officers clean up the labs
correctly in what is a highly dangerous situation. In one recent
recent raid in Todd County, suspects operating the laboratory
attempted to blow up the building while officers were carrying out the
raid.

"We're seeing mobile labs in our area. We find them in all types of
locations," said Albro. "We'll find them in motels, housing units and
mobile home parks."

Albro says that in this area, police officers are noticing a plateau
or leveling off of meth activities, but certainly no decline. This is
particularly true in Todd County, where the theft of anhydrous ammonia
in the rural, agricultural area is a problem over and above the
illegal labs and actual meth usage.

said "We're finding several labs in Elkton," said Elkton police
officer Rodney Moberly. "We find labs in places like the kitchen and
we found one in a self-storage area. We'll at least find one or two a
year going back to 2000."

Moberly said the smell of an illegal lab doesn't always trigger alarms
in his town since they have agricultural businesses in town and an
ammonia smell is not uncommon.

According to Moberly, methamphetamine producers can find plenty of
customers in Elkton.

"For every 10 people in a group, there is at least one in the group
that is involved with meth," estimated Moberly.

One of the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force officers, Don Weedman, who
lives in Caldwell County, agreed that meth also is a problem in his
area.

One of the instructors for the re-certification day was Nancy Powell,
a Muhlenburg County nurse-practitioner who emphasized the health
hazards of discovering a lab and cleaning up the materials.

"Just cleaning up the labs is an unsafe situation," said Powell,
explaining that sulfuric acid, muriatic acid, ammonia and lye are some
of the potential ingredients used in manufacturing meth.

"There are reproductive issues and some of these guys want to have
children. It (labs) could have effects on child bearing," said Powell.

One of the officers attending the process explained that the labs are
starting to use a red phosphorus method, which is even more dangerous.

"We seeing changes in techniques (in producing meth) and in the
chemicals they're using," said Albro, who noted that there have been
31 methamphetamine labs raided in Christian County this year alone.