METH LAB BUSTS A GROWING PROBLEM FOR S.C. TAXPAYERS

Methamphetamine use is growing in South Carolina, and it costs
taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for authorities to clean up
the dangerous makeshift labs where the drug is made.

Three years ago, only five meth labs were found in the state,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. This year, 99 labs
have been closed.

In South Carolina, the biggest meth problem is in the Upstate. In
2000, Greenville-area police found 13 labs. So far this year, they've
closed 77 labs - about 80 percent of the labs found in the state.

Almost anyone can set up a bathtub or kitchen lab using detailed
instructions from Internet sites or books, authorities said.

In rock form or in a confectioners' sugarlike powder, meth is a
synthetic amphetamine, similar to cocaine.

It's been around since the 1970s, but dealers recently have found a
ready market in South Carolina. Only crack cocaine is a more pervasive
drug in the state.

Methamphetamine users call the drug crank or speed or ice. Two things
make meth a popular drug: It's a quick, long-lasting high, and it's
cheap.

"It's a poor man's cocaine," said Lexington County Sheriff James
Metts.

Some drug users start cooking meth when they figure out how easy it is
to feed their habit while making money.

"That's the lure," said Demi Garvin, a chemist with the Richland
County Sheriff's Department. "There's a huge profit margin."

It costs about $75 to buy lab equipment, but most cooks set up shop
for less, stealing what they don't have. They use ordinary household
items such as rubber hoses, glass dishes, coffee filters and plastic
containers.

"It's homegrown from Kmart," said Sgt. Darren Amick of Lexington
County's Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team. "When we go into a
lab, we're usually tripping over Tupperware."

Police and firefighters said they risk their lives every time they
find one of the chemical labs or even pieces of a lab.

Household chemicals, such as paint thinner and lye, and the common
farm fertilizer anhydrous ammonia used to make meth are highly
combustible. Turning on a cell phone can spark an explosion.

Meth cooks sometimes set booby traps around already explosive labs to
prevent robberies and arrests. The chemical danger is intensified if
cooks are sloppy.

Meth makers usually head to the country to produce the drug because of
the strong chemical odor. Some people say it smells like strong cat
urine, a smell neighbors and police notice.

"It's the smell that a lot of times leads us to them," Lexington
County's Amick said. "It's a pure chemical smell. There's nothing like
it."

Certified teams investigate the crime sites in hazardous-site moon
suits after getting special training paid for with state and federal
taxes.

In South Carolina, 25 law enforcers, DEA agents and police officers
are certified as meth-lab handlers, said John Ozaluk, the Drug
Enforcement Administration's assistant special agent in charge in Columbia.

The federally funded DEA handles training and equipment. It costs
about $3,600 to train and equip one officer, he said.

Annual recertification costs taxpayers another $1,500 for each
officer.

As much as meth makers try to make a living off drugs, most spend
their profits getting high and rarely have much money or property
worth seizing to offset taxpayer costs, Metts said.