Cactus Village Community

Meth Cookers’ Paradise . . . The Arizona Republic

Jul 21, 2003

Quiet neighborhoods become?’ prime areas for drug labs
Gary St. Lawrence Special/The Arizona Republic

You really ought to get out and meet your neighbors. They might actually be fascinating people. For instance, my neighbors include a flight instructor, a professional handyman, a retired FBI agent ?— and a suspected meth dealer who?’s currently recovering after burning two-thirds of his face when the lab in his back bedroom exploded.

Most people associate meth labs with ghettos or areas that already have a high degree of crime. Most people are wrong.

If you?’ve noticed an increase in the number of news reports about meth labs being raided and shut in the northwest Valley, it?’s because the number of meth labs on the west side is increasing dramatically.

The ?“bedroom communities?” of the West Valley are considered prime real estate by drug dealers and meth-lab operators precisely because the neighborhoods are quiet, unassuming and chock-full of neighbors who generally don?’t pay much attention to what?’s going on around them. It?’s that very ?“hide in plain sight?” protection that draws meth cookers to the West Valley.

Meth, short for methamphetamine, is a very potent synthetic central nervous system stimulant. The drug, which can be injected, snorted, swallowed or smoked, directly affects the brain and spinal cord by interfering with the natural chemical neurotransmission within nerve cells that regulate the entire human body?’s mental, cardiovascular and motor functions, both voluntary and involuntary.

Meth causes irreversible brain damage, strokes, heart failure, severe depression, violent or psychotic behavior, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and weight loss nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, skin ulcers and infection (the result of picking at imaginary bugs), paranoia, irritability, anxiety, high blood pressure, seizures, malnutrition and birth defects.
In 1999, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency released a by-state count of the number of clandestine meth labs it had seized and shut. California led with 2,691 followed by Washington State with 597 and Oklahoma with 396.

Arizona was a close fourth, with 383. The DEA estimates a minimum increase of 135 percent in meth labs in Arizona for the year 2000.

Meth use and production is rampant, and at a current street value of $100 per gram, business is booming. Unfortunately, so are the labs that produce it.

Over-the-counter cold and asthma medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine are the most common ingredients used to produce meth. Fortunately, most retail companies are aware of the use of cold medicines in meth production and have implemented limits to the number of packages a customer can buy in a single purchase.

Combined with red phosphorous, hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern, fuel and antifreeze, the ephedrine in the medications are ?“cooked?” down into rocky, candy-looking chunks.

Under pressure, the heated chemicals cause an almost instantaneous chain reaction, and, boom, there?’s a tarp where the bedroom wall used to be.

Possibly the worst aspect of living near a meth lab is that you can contract many of the same symptoms a meth user has simply from exposure to the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that the lab generates. VOCs can cause nose and throat irritation, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, memory loss, breathing difficulties and seizures.

Meth cooks vary from high school dropouts with no real chemistry education to professionals with graduate degrees in chemistry. Typically, these cooks have little formal training. Instead, they follow a handwritten recipe or have learned to produce meth from underground publications, the Internet, apprenticeships or jail.

With some simple observation and a little knowledge of what to do about it, you can spot a meth lab in your neighborhood and help bust it up.

Use your nose and eyes. Meth production puts off an awful smell, like ammonia or cat urine. And if your neighbor has a bunch of visitors who stay only briefly, that?’s a sign of suspicious activity.

If you know or suspect that there?’s a meth lab operating near you, call your local police or municipal ordinance office. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is primarily responsible for enforcing narcotics statutes. The DPS Metropolitan Phoenix Criminal Investigation Bureau for Narcotics can be reached at (602) 223-2364. You also can call the national Crank Hotline at 1-888-664-4673.

It?’s time to crank up the heat on meth dealers.

Gary St. Lawrence is a professional writer and former investigative journalist. He can be reached at 4saint?©home.com The views expressed are those of the author. . . ☻