SANITATION, UTILITY WORKERS LEARN TO SPOT DRUG TRADE TOOLS

LAWTON -- Watch out for Mason jars, pie plates, spatulas, turkey basters
and wooden spoons, David Schucker tells garbage collectors.

It's not that sanitation workers -- or other utility workers -- would be
shocked to find such things in their line of work, or that those things are
dangerous. It's that they can be used to do dangerous things, such as
cooking a batch of illegal methamphetamine, said Schucker, a Lawton police
detective. Schucker teaches a course, sponsored by Crime Stoppers and
Lawton police, on recognizing the stuff of illegal drug labs.

The first of the classes at Great Plains Technology Center held two weeks
ago was attended by about 40 people who work for the city sanitation
department and for gas and electric companies, Schucker said. Such training
is not unusual for people whose jobs involve venturing where there's a
possibility of a drug lab.

"Meth is such a prolific drug in this state," said Brian Alford, spokesman
for Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.

Some OG&E workers last year underwent training through the Oklahoma Bureau
of Investigation on how to recognize illegal labs, Alford said.

"There's always the potential," he said. "These are folks that are in the
field each and every day."

Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. workers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa also have
attended such classes, spokesman Don Sherry said.

Bob Thomasson, general manager for Caddo Electric in Caddo County, said
such training might be a good idea for his workers. Meth labs have been
found in the area, although, to his knowledge, not by his crews.

"We're all over the county, with our district people running up and down
the rural roads," he said.

During Schucker's four-hour class, participants see 140 slides of meth labs
and equipment used to produce the drug, they see "static displays" of meth
equipment, and they get to smell the pungent smells of the illegal drug trade.

They're taught to recognize the tools of the trade, which pretty much are
the tools of other trades as well, such as gardening, cleaning and
charcoaling burgers. Other things to watch for include various solvents and
chemicals, such as denatured alcohol, fuel line drier and drain cleaner,
and propane tanks and garden sprayers.

Telling the difference between normal use and drug use is the trick. It's
not just what you see, it's where you see it and how much of it you see,
Schucker said.

For example, most propane tanks are found on a patio attached to a barbecue
grill.

"If they happen to see a propane tank in the middle of the living room," he
said, that would be a clue.

Also, most people buy one box of nasal decongestant a week, so people
attending Schucker's class learn to suspect something other than severe
allergies if they find, say, a 55-gallon trash sack filled with "thousands
and thousands of boxes."

When and if workers run across any of this stuff and suspect something
illegal, they're told to first get away from the area. Meth materials can
explode or cause breathing problems. Safety is the main idea of OG&E's
program, Alford said.

Beyond the safety, though, is the question of what to do with the
information. Schucker doesn't tell those in his class to report anything.
He can't.

If authorities solicit people to "keep an eye out and call us," that
creates a problem with the constitutional ban on illegal search and
seizure, he said.

"Effectively, we have made them an agent of the law."

Whether a worker who has seen something suspicious reports it to
supervisors or police is up to the worker and the supervisors, he said.