II. The Number One Drug Problem in America 26

A.  A Nationwide Epidemic

Methamphetamine is an extremely addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system.27  It is often placed in the same class with other amphetamines as an amphetamine-type stimulant (“ATS”).28  It is known by a variety of names, but is most commonly referred to as “meth,” “crank,” or “crystal.”29  It can be smoked, snorted, injected, or taken orally.30  It is one of the most addictive of all illegal drugs,31 and has one of the lowest recovery rates (around five percent).32  In 2005, researchers estimated that 1.3 million Americans were addicted to methamphetamine.33

Methamphetamine causes the brain to release large amounts of the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.  These chemicals affect the user's mood, causing her to experience heightened levels of pleasure while decreasing her appetite and perceived need for sleep.34  The release of these chemicals causes the user to experience a brief rush of pleasure and an extended high, which can last for up to twelve hours.35  Users report that the drug boosts confidence, makes them feel more alert, gives them energy, improves their mood, increases their sex drive, makes them feel more talkative, and erases feelings of boredom, loneliness, and timidity.36

Physiologically, methamphetamine takes a harsh toll on the user's body.  It increases the heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and respiratory rate, while decreasing appetite, sleep, reaction time, and lung function.37  Users have a heightened risk of complications such as stroke, cardiac valve sclerosis, pulmonary hyperextension, and anorexia.38  Psychologically, users may experience confusion, lack of concentration, hallucinations, fatigue, memory loss, insomnia, irritability, paranoia, panic, depression, anger, and psychosis.39  Long-term use may lead to brain damage, liver damage, strokes, coma, and death.40

Methamphetamine is the most commonly synthesized controlled substance,41 and is the drug most commonly manufactured in clandestine labs.42  Worldwide, ATSs (including methamphetamine) are used more frequently than any other controlled substance except marijuana.43  In the United States, the number of methamphetamine lab “busts” has increased exponentially over the past ten years,44 and has spread from California throughout the entire country.45  According to Captain Dave Neri, Commander of the Southern Arizona Counter Narcotics Alliance, “[m]eth is now listed as the greatest drug threat in the United States, [and is] leading to a greater number of problems in a shorter time frame than we've seen with any other drug.”46

The drastic increase in use and production has caught many states, as well as the federal government, completely off guard.  Within the last five years, the Southeast (including North Carolina) has experienced a major increase in methamphetamine lab seizures.47  The rapid spread of this epidemic has outpaced the ability of state legislatures and agencies ability to respond.  As a result, state reactions to the multiple problems posed by methamphetamine (production, sale, use, site cleanup) have been erratic and disjointed.

B. Production-If You Can Bake a Cake, You Can Cook Meth 48

Production of methamphetamine involves a series of relatively simple chemical reactions.  The level of sophistication required to create a potent batch of the drug can be acquired in a high school chemistry class.49  Most of the chemicals and other required materials can either be easily obtained or derived from household chemicals.50

There are approximately 150 different ways to manufacture methamphetamine,51 and around thirty-two chemicals can be used to make it.52  There are many recipes, some of which are accessible on the Internet.53  Recipes typically involve the ingredients ephedrine hydrochloride and/or pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, which are available in many cold medicines.54  The red phosphorus method (also known as the “Red P” method) and the Birch reduction (also known as the “Ammonia” or “Nazi” method) are most common.55  The red phosphorus method involves reducing the ephedrine  and pseudoephedrine with hydriodic acid and red phosphorus (obtained from match tips or road flares), whereas the Birch reduction uses lithium metal and anhydrous ammonia (a common ingredient found in fertilizer).56

In either process, the resulting mixtures are combined with strong caustics, solvents and reactive metals to strip a hydroxyl group from the pseudoephedrine molecule.57  After the reaction has occurred, the methamphetamine is extracted from the solution by bubbling an acid gas (such as hydrochloric/muriatic acid) through the mixture.  The methamphetamine precipitates (i.e., falls out of solution) from the mixture, settles in the bottom of the container, and is then filtered and dried.58  It may seem complicated, but the process is actually quite simple and straightforward when stripped of the scientific jargon.

C.  Methamphetamine Labs:  Mini-Superfund Sites 59

There are two types of methamphetamine labs.  Some labs are relatively large and well organized, and can put out in excess of ten pounds of product in a twenty-four hour period.60  These labs are referred to as “superlabs.”61  The vast majority of superlabs are located in California and Mexico.62  They are often run by gang members from Mexico.63  Other labs, referred to as “mom and pop” labs, “Beavis and Butthead” labs,64 “small toxic labs,”65 or “clandestine labs,”66 are much smaller and more common.67  They are very mobile and easily set up, and are often operated for personal use or low-level dealing rather than major trafficking operations.68

Superlabs tend to have more particular space and supply requirements due to the size of the operation, but “mom and pop” labs are pervasive.69  Some labs, referred to as “box labs,” are completely portable.70  A batch of meth can be cooked, from start to finish, in about eight hours.71  The short cooking time and the portability of small labs makes them particularly hazardous to unsuspecting bystanders.

Whereas superlab operations are, by necessity, usually more sophisticated and permanent, “mom and pop” labs are exactly the opposite.  Safety precautions are often disregarded due to the operator's intoxication or ignorance of the risks involved.72  “Cooks,” the individuals who actually produce the drug-generally try to set up their mobile operations in remote or easily abandoned places because the cooking process produces such strong, unpleasant odors.73  Labs have been discovered in rental houses, RVs, campers, horse trailers, barns, storage lockers, houseboats, tents, apartments, hotel rooms, abandoned buildings, greenhouses, sheds, car trunks, campgrounds, fields, and woods.74  Many times, labs are only found when firefighters respond to an explosion.75  Successful short-term labs escape detection altogether.76

Meth labs create environmental hazards wherever they are operated.  Most of the individual chemicals used for production are dangerous.77  When combined, heated, and refined, the chemicals create additional toxic fumes and byproducts.78  The fumes and compounds created during the cooking process can be extremely volatile, and explosions may result due to a lack of safety precautions or sophistication on the part of the cook.79  After the cooking process, the messes left behind have been referred to as “toxic mini-waste dumps”80 or “mini-superfund sites.”81

There are two general sites of environmental contamination:indoor and outdoor.82  The former affects the living space itself, while the latter refers to the effects of dumping and disposal of supplies and by-products.  Indoors, the actual cooking location is generally the most contaminated area in a methfield site, and pollution tends to plume from that area.  Labs have been found set up in living rooms and kitchens.83  Chemicals may spill during the meth cooking process,84 and fumes permeate any porous surface with which they come into contact.85  After the cooking process, when the methamphetamine is being dried, it turns into powder that often becomes airborne, covering every surface in the cooking area.86  Heating and cooling systems may suck fumes and methamphetamine dust into the ductwork, thereby contaminating other rooms.87

Once the cooking process is finished, the residual waste must be disposed.  For every pound of meth produced, between five and seven pounds of toxic byproduct are generated.88  Much of this waste is dumped down drains in toilets, sinks, or bathtubs, or is simply poured onto the ground outside the lab.89  In addition to contaminating and ruining plumbing systems, which may require repair or replacement, improper disposal of these byproducts results in contamination of soil, groundwater, and publicly-owned treatment works that receive wastewater.90  Solid waste is sometimes burned to destroy evidence, which creates additional air, ground, and water pollution hazards.91

The pervasiveness of “mom and pop” meth labs, coupled with the reckless production and disposal methods, creates dangers for several groups of people.  The cooks themselves are at an acute risk because of their proximity to the concentrated source of chemicals and fumes.92  Often, children live at residential meth lab locations.93  There is a particular concern for the negative health effects suffered by children, because they have lower body weights than adults and their respiratory systems are still developing.94  Whenever a meth lab explodes, catches fire, or is reported, first responders are exposed to fumes and chemical residue.95  Neighbors to meth labs are also put at risk, particularly when the lab is located in an apartment or motel room.  Shared vents and ductwork may expose them to fumes during and after the cooking process and carry contaminants into their living space.96  Also, explosions or fires in communal living environments jeopardize the safety of all tenants.97  Finally, new tenants of former lab sites are at risk of exposure to residual chemicals98 because they live in an area where the actual cooking occurred.99