Meth Lab Discoveries Decrease

The use of one-pot methods to make methamphetamine reportedly is increasing nationwide, but local law enforcement officers say that’s something that isn’t happening in Cartersville and Bartow County.

In fact, the number of local meth labs discovered have decreased. In 2005—when investigators said the number of labs reached its peak—40 to 50 were found in Bartow County. Last year, there were only three labs discovered by law enforcement officers.

That’s all due to luck, investigators said.

“We were hitting them so hard several years in a row that I think we educated people that they’ll get arrested,” said Capt. Mark Mayton, commander of the Bartow County-Cartersville Drug Task Force, a combined effort of the and .

Other factors that likely have contributed to the decrease in meth lab discoveries include more restricted access to pseudoephdrine—medicines containing the ingredient are behind pharmacy counters and customers are required to sign for them—and legislation passed in 2005 that allows law enforcement officers to add drug trafficking charges if any trace amount of finished product is found where a lab is uncovered. That charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“The risk became too great,” Mayton said.

Fewer than 10 labs handled by local investigators have been of the one-pot variety. On March 16, a suspected one-pot—or “shake-and-bake”—lab was discovered in the crawl space underneath a home on Euharlee Road.

Agents said the person making the drug had dug a hole in the crawl space so that he could stand in the 2-foot tall space. The residence had been unoccupied since last June, and the home was purchased at foreclosure several weeks ago. The renters discovered the lab after going into the crawl space to investigate why the venting system wasn’t working properly.

The shake-and-bake method is becoming more popular because the drug can be produced in as little as an hour as opposed to the several hours the red phosphorus method takes. However, the practice, in which the ingredients typically are put into 2-liter bottles, has a new set of hazards because water, water-reactive metals and at least a half gallon of flammable liquids are combined to make the drug.

“Under normal circumstances, water and water reactive metals cause a fire,” DTF Agent Brian Bunce said. “You add in flammable liquids and essentially you have a bomb.”

The method also is easy to conceal, as the one-pot labs can be hidden in backpacks or closets.

According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shake-and-bake labs comprised 80 percent of those busted by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in 2010. While larger meth labs—known as red phosphorus labs—also can explode, most people are able to escape those fires, AJC reports.

Because of the proximity of the bottle to the person making the drug, the shake-and-bake method usually causes burns from the waist to the face. The AJC story cites an Associated Press survey that showed one-third of people entering the burn unit at key hospitals in the nation’s most active meth states were injured while making the drug.

The bottles can throw the chemicals around, causing extensive burns, Bunch said.

“If they’re going to get injured, it’s going to be significant,” he said.

Statistics on the number of shake-and-bake labs that explode compared to the number of explosions from red phosphorus labs were not available.