Published: April 06, 2009 10:17 pm         

Area leaders address spike in meth labs

Tulsa community leaders gathered Monday to discuss a troubling rise of methamphetamine in the city, amid increasing numbers for lab busts and concerns over fires that have killed three and injured several others at drug-making operations.

Authorities in Garfield County have found several dump sites since the beginning of the year, a sign meth “still represents a viable threat,” Undersheriff Jerry Niles said previously.

He also said Garfield County Sheriff’s Office is investigating thefts of anhydrous ammonia, which is used in one method to cook meth.

Authorities in Tulsa have discovered nearly 60 meth labs so far this year, surpassing the 42 labs they dismantled in all of 2008, leading Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor to compare the increase to an “epidemic.”

“Addiction to meth in our state and in our community is horrific,” Taylor told a crowd of residents, public health and state officials gathered on the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus for a summit on the powerful drug.

The spike is being blamed in part on a quicker and more lethal way of producing the drug, known as the “shake-and-bake” or “one-pot” method.

Instead of a makeshift laboratory in a home or garage with tubes, beakers and other bulky tools, the cruder method makes the drug in a plastic soda bottle with equipment that “fits inside of a backpack,” said Sgt. Bob Darby, with the Metro Tulsa Drug Task Force.

The appeal of the quicker method is a batch can be made in 30 to 45 minutes — compared to several hours using the old way — and is virtually odor-free, lacking the telltale smell of ammonia or other chemicals that come with bigger labs.

The quick batches also use less pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in cold and cough medicines that is a key meth-making, officials said.

“There are certainly new methods for producing meth, and it’s changed the culture, it’s changed the way people are producing this,” said Emergency Medical Services Authority spokeswoman Tina Wells. “From what I understand, it’s dramatically simplified the way it is produced.

“Meth labs are cheaper, faster, but they’re also less stable,” she said.

Oklahoma has seen a dramatic reduction of meth labs since 2004, the year lawmakers passed a first-of-its-kind law limiting sales of pseudoephedrine. Other states quickly followed suit.

But even with a 90 percent reduction in the number of meth labs operating in the state since the law was passed, authorities say demand for the powerful stimulant remains high in Oklahoma.

Earlier this year, authorities aired a 30-minute documentary called “Crystal Darkness” to educate the public about the dangers of the drug.

“I’ve been a prosecutor 24 years ... from my experience, this is the most challenging and most addictive drug that we prosecute,” said Tim Harris, Tulsa County District Attorney. “We have the largest drug court in the state of Oklahoma.”

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics also is partnering with state pharmacies to curb the production of meth, placing thousands of placards at pharmacy counters across the state, alerting customers all pseudoephedrine sales are tracked and monitored electronically by both OBN and the pharmacy.

The 2004 Oklahoma law allows someone to buy no more than 9 grams per month of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that is a common ingredient in cold medications. The buyer has to show either a driver’s license, a military ID or a passport.

However, those cooking meth are able to skirt Oklahoma’s pseudoephedrine law by using multiple buyers, called “smurfing,” to obtain pseudoephedrine or by grouping together to buy cold medications with the purpose of cooking meth, called “skittle shopping.”

“Basically, they’re conspiring in a criminal enterprise,” Niles said.

He said people will go to multiple stores, in multiple cities and purchase just under the legal limit of pseudoephedrine. The use of multiple identification cards also had become a common occurrence in obtaining more pseudoephedrine.

Citing the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported about 11.7 million Americans ages 12 and older reported trying meth at least once during their lifetimes — about 5 percent of the population ages 12 and older.