MAKESHIFT LABS LEAVE HAZARDOUS, COSTLY MESS

Afterproducts Left Or Dumped On Land

Ask drug enforcement officials about methamphetamine, and they'll tell you
it's a highly addictive stimulant that can cause liver damage and
psychological problems.

That's bad enough. But to make the drug, producers use a mix of toxic and
explosive chemicals, including acids, ether, and red phosphorus. For each
pound of methamphetamine produced, five to six pounds of hazardous waste
end up abandoned in makeshift labs or dumped outdoors.

The growing number of clandestine labs in the region is damaging the
environment and forcing federal authorities to spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars to clean up the mess.

"These producers are very unscrupulous," said Vern Dunn, the federal
government's top drug enforcer in northwest Ohio. "They'll do whatever they
have to to get rid of their afterproducts. It's a real poison problem. The
stuff's very hazardous."

Two weeks ago in Williams County, the sheriff's office received a trash
complaint near the intersection of State Rt. 34 and County Road 4, just
outside Edon. Deputies found two 20-pound propane tanks and a garbage bag
stuffed with bottles and hoses - telltale signs of methamphetamine production.

The deputies paged Sheriff Alan Word, who was in church at the start of
Sunday morning services. He had deputies secure the site, with instructions
to not let anybody touch anything, and contacted the DEA. "We don't mess
with it," Sheriff Word said. "We don't know what we're dealing with. We
know there's ramifications. It's kind of like pulling the trigger on a gun,
wondering if there's a cartridge in the cylinder."

Besides contaminating soil, air, and water, the waste material is dangerous
to anyone who stumbles upon it, said Mr. Dunn, the resident agent in charge
of the DEA's Toledo office. "The stuff's very hazardous, very poisonous. It
can cause respiratory problems, burn the skin, cause rashes. ... It's
dangerous to pregnant women and infants. It can cause birth defects."

Erie County sheriff's Sgt. Greg Majoy, who heads the county drug task
force, said accidents with the chemicals used to make the drug often lead
authorities to a producer.

In the Williams County case, the DEA hired a Findlay contractor,
Ferguson-Harbour, Inc., to clear the site of chemicals that included
ammonia, acids, solvents, and other chemicals.

Mr. Dunn said he didn't know the exact cost of the clean-up but added:
"It's thousands of dollars."

Williams County was left with another mess in late February when deputies
found at a farm a pickup truck with smoke coming out of the cab. Inside
"they had the components to make meth," Lt. Todd Snyder said. "I was told
they were quoting between $8,000 and $10,000 just for [cleaning up] that
pickup."

In the DEA's Toledo district, which includes 21 Ohio counties plus
Hillsdale, Lenawee, and Monroe counties in Michigan, the agency has been
finding more methamphetamine labs and paying more to clean up waste.

In 1999, authorities found 16 clandestine labs in Ohio and none in the
Toledo district. That year, the DEA spent $47,952 on Ohio cleanups.

So far this year, 126 labs have been found in Ohio, 10 in the Toledo
district. Cleanup costs totaled $361,518 statewide and $28,861 in the
Toledo region, on pace to equal or exceed last year's totals.

"The trend is up," said David Jacobson, a special agent with the DEA office
in Detroit. "The number of labs seized is up. And part of the problem is,
unfortunately, methamphetamine has been on the scene for decades ... but
it's not as difficult for people to make as it used to be."

Producers can find recipes on the Internet, and much of the material needed
to make the drug - including baking pans, jars, and rubber tubing - can be
bought at grocery and hardware stores.

Methamphetamine "cooks" use two main methods to produce the drug. In one,
producers extract pseudoephedrine, a stimulant, from cold medications such
as Sudafed. In the other, they use anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer.

Mr. Jacobson and other enforcement officials said most of the
methamphetamine in the United States is produced by Mexican drug cartels in
southern California. Many of them smuggle in pseudoephedrine from overseas.

Much of the methamphetamine found in Ohio and the rest of the Midwest comes
from independent producers who work in isolated areas.

"There's been almost an epidemic of labs in the Missouri Ozarks because
it's rural," Mr. Dunn said.

Such outside areas supply most of the methamphetamine found in Ohio, he
added. "It's probably imported from another state, unless somebody threw
together a small lab."

In agricultural states such as Iowa and Missouri, farmers and authorities
are battling an epidemic of fertilizer theft. Methamphetamine producers
siphon anhydrous ammonia, a corrosive chemical, from tanks at farms and
fertilizer plants.

"They've been absolutely inundated with anhydrous ammonia labs," Mr.
Jacobson said.

Authorities in those states have given away valve locks to help farmers
secure their tanks.

Locally, the problem is less widespread but growing, said Gary Wilson, an
Ohio State University extension agent in Hancock County. He advises farmers
to keep their tanks in a well-lit driveway or near a barn.

In Williams County, two men and a woman from Indiana were caught in January
stealing fertilizer from a farmers' co-op in Edon. All three were sentenced
to five years of community control for illegal assembly of chemicals for drugs.

"They put it into small propane tanks like you and I use for our barbecue
grills," Mr. Jacobson said. "It's extremely corrosive. These guys have no
chemistry background. They work in poorly ventilated areas - It's a recipe
for disaster."

Most local producers who steal anhydrous ammonia are small-time criminals
who make the drug for themselves and acquaintances, authorities said.

Labs found in the region typically produce an ounce or so at a time. But
with a gram selling on the street for about $100, it doesn't take much to
make big money.

Bob Marzec, an acting Toledo police lieutenant who oversees the
department's vice narcotics section, said the labs he's seen are crude
operations set up in basements, garages, and empty apartments. "They
weren't anything really extensive," he said. "We're talking about just a
pan on a stove with a drainage hose in a jar for the waste products to flow
into."

In one case, a couple used a Clyde motel room where they were staying with
their two children, ages 9 and 12, to house a methamphetamine lab.

Allen and Lori Dirnberg of Clyde were arrested March 2 at the Plaza Motel.
They each pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs, a
third-degree felony, and face terms of one to five years in prison when
sentenced Jan. 29.

Local drug treatment facilities report small but growing numbers of people
seeking treatment for methamphetamine addiction.

Ross Chaban, executive director of Comprehensive Addiction Service Systems
(COMPASS), said the drug-treatment center handles "two or three" cases a month.

"We see them on a regular basis," he said. "We're definitely seeing an
increase in the community. ... It took a while but we're starting to get
our share."

"It's such a good high, that it's hard to replace that feeling with
anything else," Mr. Chaban said. "That's one of the biggest challenges in
trying to avoid relapse. ... You feel like you're Superman, then you crash
pretty good."