METH. LABS IN MONTANA

State and local governments are using the US Drug Enforcement Administration with increasing frequency for assistance in cleaning up clandestine drug laboratory sites. DEA’s disposal program is predicated on the assumption that the substances at clandestine laboratories are so toxic that they must be immediately destroyed. When an agency seizes property, it normally has only three options: to hold it as evidence, initiate forfeiture procedures, or give it back. Under the US Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a law enforcement agency that seizes a clandestine laboratory becomes a “generator” of hazardous wastes located there.

Wastes from laboratories meeting “conditionally exempt small quantity generator” status could be removed from the site and placed in container storage. But properly trained personnel must maintain documentation to allow the waste to be tracked from point of generation to the point of disposal.

Meth Labs in Montana

Requiring Hazardous Waste Clean-up

(DEA Statistics)

Year Number Taxpayer Cost

1997 7 -

1999 16 $ 98,000

2000 33 235,000

2001 86 631,000

2002 122 1,005,000

Hazardous chemicals are absorbed through skin and by breathing. Clothing, gloves, boots and facemasks offer no protection. (Don’t even wipe your sleeve across your face or step on discolored ground where chemicals may have been dumped.) Inhalation affects the respiratory system quickly and can have adverse long-term health affects.

As soon as meth enters a body, whether through skin or breathing, the person is contaminated. Skin decontamination is done by vigorously washing with water for 15 minutes, using ten gallons of water a minute. Not all of the body’s impacted systems recover fully.

Meth labs create a volatile, vaporous gas and also carbon monoxide, either of which may cause a person to collapse. The labs smell strongly of urine—a pungent, nose-burning, acrid and sour smell like that of a filthy pet cage. Ceilings, walls and surfaces of the lab may be streaked with brown stains. Meth is cooked in either a hot or cold process. Containers may include glass jars, Red Devil lye or Drano cans or metal drums. Mobile labs might include a plastic gas can, a few large jugs or bottles, plastic tubing, a propane heating source, funnels and coffee filters. Supplies might include ammonia, rubbing alcohol, cold medications like Sudafed, matches (phosphorous from the tips), acetone, and/or paint thinner.

Sources:

CDC News Updates

DEA Cooperative Clean-up Procedures

“Dangers of Methamphetimine Labs” by Mona Vanek; Rural Northwest.com

Attorney General Mike McGrath website

Interview with Roland Mena, DPHHS