AN EPIDEMIC ADDICTION

Meth Labs Multiply Faster Than Police Can Find Them

In 1998, a grand total of one methamphetamine lab was seized in the
state of Alabama. This year, the total may surpass 300, or nearly one
a day.

For the law enforcement officers on the front line of Alabama's war on
meth, the battle starts with a scene like the one that unfolded at
William Rufus Hill's house in Tuscaloosa a month ago.

After a long surveillance, officers from the West Alabama Narcotics
Task Force moved in on the house on a weekday afternoon in early July.

The raid was successful, police said, as they found what appeared to
be a meth lab in the house and placed Hill under arrest. But that
doesn't mean it was an easy task.

Meth labs pose unique challenges o the chemicals used in the
manufacture can physically sicken the/sresponding officers, the
cleanup must be done by specially trained crews that are scattered
across the state and the evidence needed to bust a lab must often be
retrieved from piles of garbage.

The ingredients are so toxic that health departments are notified to
assist, and investigators must obtain residue from ventilation shafts,
drywall and insulation, adding to their own exposure to the dangerous
chemicals.

So it should come as no surprise that it can take several hours to
clean up the scene of a meth lab.

And the term "lab" may be a misnomer as it evokes images of beakers,
bubbling mixtures and sterile rooms.

"Everything you need will fit in a 48-quart cooler," said Danny
Jenkins, chief agent of the 24th Judicial Circuit Drug and Violent
Crimes Task Force.

Just last week, area law enforcement officers arrested a Tuscaloosa
man after a short car chase. They found what appeared to be a meth lab
inside his car, said Capt. Jeff Snyder, commander of the West Alabama
Narcotics Task Force.

Hurry up and wait At Hill's house last month, Snyder was on the scene
waiting for a cleanup crew from Huntsville to arrive.

As he waited (it took seven hours for the Huntsville team to reach the
scene), Snyder surveyed the front yard of the house trailer where he
and his officers had been working for several hours. Jars of clear
liquid heated by the July sun were giving off acrid chemical odors
that were causing the officers' throats to tingle.

One officer filled a bucket with water for a skinny pit bull that was
lying under a truck to escape the heat. A few feet away, an officer
roasting in a head-to-toe plastic yellow protective suit inspected a
pile of burnt garbage. Batteries and hundreds of empty foil pill
packages that had not completely burned were visible in the rubbish.

"It is a victory for us to get these labs, but it is a burden,"
acknowledged Snyder. "When we learn of one, we just get on it and get
it over with."

Officers must secure the meth lab, now a crime scene, until the
cleanup crew arrives. Usually, a crew comprises off-duty firefighters
who have received training in how to clean up labs according to
federal standards.

"We're police officers. We're not chemists or hazardous material
handlers," Snyder said.

Tuscaloosa has no place to store hazardous materials, so, once
investigators take enough samples needed for prosecution, the cleanup
crews must take inventory and transport all of the materials to a
storage facility in Atlanta and later to a hazardous materials dump
site.

For the Tuscaloosa-based West Alabama Narcotics Task Force, officers
from several agencies join up and rely on the resources of their
departments.

For more rural parts of Alabama, where meth labs flourish, identifying
and seizing those labs can tax the resources of smaller
departments.

The 24th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force has four officers to cover
Fayette, Lamar and Pickens counties, an area that covers 2,114 square
miles.

Jenkins is the only one on the squad authorized to enter a lab because
of his training, which the others are scheduled to complete.

About two weeks ago, Jenkins left two of his rookie agents in charge
of waiting to seize a lab until a cleanup crew could travel from Mobile.

He left the agents just before midnight, expecting that the entire
task might take a few hours. On his way to work at 7 the next morning,
a dispatcher radioed him, relaying a message that the officers were
still at the lab because the cleanup crew had yet to arrive.

"They were excited. It was their first meth lab. It didn't take long
to get over that excitement," he said wryly.

On the rise By any measure, law enforcement's involvement in fighting
methamphetamine is on the rise. More people are being arrested, more
labs are being seized and more meth is being confiscated.

It still pales next to marijuana and cocaine, but the sharp rise over
the past few years is undeniable.

Between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003, the West Alabama Narcotics
Task Force charged 86 people with manufacturing a controlled substance
and 77 people with possession of a controlled substance, meaning
methamphetamine. During that time, they confiscated more than 7
kilograms of meth with a street value of $429,347.

According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration statistics, 18.8
kilograms were confiscated in Alabama in 2002, which could have a
street value of more than $1 million.

Among all U.S. states, Alabama had the 17th highest number of meth lab
seizures last year, a fact that Darien Rentfro, a DEA agent in the
agency's Birmingham office, attributes to good access to meth
ingredients and the many rural parts of the state.

"Heavily and densely populated areas are not conducive to making meth
because of the odor it emits," he said.

By comparison, New York had only 14 meth lab seizures in 2002, while
Oregon had 446.

Alabama had the one meth lab seizure in 1998. In 2002, the number of
seizures had increased to more than 200. Those statistics include
dumpsites, working labs and confiscation of precursor materials.

The problem is expected to worsen "because it's so addictive in nature
and so easily made," said Rentfro.

As a response, he said, the U.S. Attorneys in Alabama are working with
local law enforcement agencies to prosecute meth-lab suspects in
federal courts, when appropriate. Federal charges, and sentences, can
often be more severe than state-level charges.

On a national basis, the DEA is also working with large retailers,
such as Wal-Mart, K-mart and Walgreen's, to identify people who have
purchased the ingredients and equipment needed to make
methamphetamine, Rentfro said.

Who pays the bill? While police in Alabama have found that meth labs
can literally spring up anywhere, from rural or city residences to
hotel rooms or alongside roads, the demographics of the offenders are
not as varied.

"We find more labs in rural areas, but it is not exclusive to that.
The majority of lab manufacturers are going to be young adult white,
sometimes Hispanic, males in their mid-20s to mid-30s. That's the
majority, but not all. We've arrested females, too," said Snyder of
the West Alabama task force.

In rural counties, police often find the remains of labs along logging
roads and isolated access roads.

Finding the lab is one challenge, while cleaning it up presents many
other ones. Like any technical endeavor, the costs can mount quickly.

The small plastic evidence containers that the officers use to collect
acids and bases cost $19 for a package of 12. Snyder said that his
unit can go through as many as 50 packages a month.

"We end up losing money, even with the small labs. It's time-consuming
and cost-consuming," Snyder said.

Investigators spend money on field test kits used to check for meth
and ephedrine, an ingredient used to manufacture the finished product.
Other needs include basters, pH test strips, glass vials, air filter
masks, chemical resistant suits and mason jars. For Snyder's task
force, those costs are absorbed by the Tuscaloosa and Northport Police
Departments, and the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

The DEA helps pay for the cleanup costs, but with meth labs on the
rise, Snyder predicts that well will eventually run dry.

"With the demand that's on them, I just don't see that lasting
forever. State and local task forces are going to have to come up with
some way to pay for this ourselves," he said.

Rentfro said that while the federal government will continue to pay
for cleanups, some state governments have started paying for some of
the costs involved. Some states have earmarked money for meth cleanup
by imposing fines on waste haulers and using federal grants, he said.

Chemical effects The health effects of combating a meth lab are not
insignificant either, said Jenkins, the 24th Judicial Circuit task
force officer.

Exposure to certain chemicals used to manufacture meth can cause
nervous system and respiratory problems, eye, throat or skin
irritation, dizziness and nausea.

Some of the chemicals can cause cancer, anemia, kidney damage and
birth defects.

Jenkins notifies the Pickens, Fayette and Lamar County health
departments when his unit confiscates a lab.

Chemical residue can linger in curtains, carpets, in a home's
ventilation system, drywall and insulation, with the likelihood of
exposure to contaminants increasing with the amount of time the lab
was active. It is a health risk for the occupants and investigators
alike.

Jenkins said he would soon ask his task force's advisory board to
implement a policy of notifying probate offices of lab sites, as a
means of full disclosure for future residents. This could help the
counties avoid liability in cases of people who move onto property
where a meth lab used to function.

"Whether it's law or not, we're going to do it," he
said.