Making or even smoking meth leaves behind many chemicals
that saturates walls, ceilings, floors and carpets with meth as well as
mercury, lead, iodine, lithium and poisonous solvents. For each pound of drug,
meth "cookers" dump, flush or leave behind 5 to 6 pounds of poisonous
waste. Exposure to even small amounts of these poisons can damage humans’
nervous systems, liver and blood production mechanisms. Small children suffer the
most. Exposure to women while pregnant can trigger birth defects and
developmental problems in babies in the womb.
Meth labs are found in houses, commercial buildings, cabins,
mobile homes, RVs, caves, abandoned mines and federal and state forests and
parks. The stuff is so easy to make and the ingredients are so cheap and common
that some users just make their own at home in two-liter pop bottles or a
picnic cooler. Meth labs are easy to conceal. Usually they go undiscovered
until a landlord finds a mess when tenants depart or a neighbor phones police
to report someone’s weird behavior. The cost of testing, decontaminating and
re-testing a house for meth: $16,000.
When starch is sprayed on a contaminated surface, it will
turn purple-red. Starch turns color in the presence of iodine, used in cooking
meth. It can work, but it’s not reliable or sensitive, so if you don’t see
purple, you can’t conclude that a house is clean. In fact, most
meth-contaminated homes have no odor or visual clues.
Manufacturing methamphetamine creates more contamination
than smoking, but repeated smoking will push levels in a home over state limits
to levels that make a structure dangerous to inhabitants. In a 2008 study,
“Methamphetamine contamination on environmental surfaces caused by simulated
smoking of methamphetamine” (published in the Journal of Chemical Health and
Safety), Martyny’s laboratory simulated “six or seven smokes, maybe a little
bit more, and it (the result) was well over the limits.”
Plenty of labs have been discovered in expensive homes in
“nice” neighborhoods. “We have processed meth labs in the homes of two
different dentists, a public accountant and an international banker who had a
legitimate income of seven figures,” Connell says. He recently tested and found
meth in a “beautiful,” 4,500-square-foot, million-dollar house in downtown
Denver.
In 2009, the Drug Enforcement Administration reported
clandestine meth labs in 46 states. (Click your state on this DEA map.) Certain
areas become hot spots. Lately, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri are a center
for labs. One reason: Midwest farmers use tons of anhydrous-ammonia fertilizer
on crops. It’s a “precursor” (ingredient) for meth and is stored in big tanks
in and around farms. Thieves help themselves and a manufacturing industry grows
up around the supply. Even in strict states like Missouri, where meth labs
number in the tens of thousands, sellers aren't required to determine whether a
home is contaminated before selling it, said Timothy Sigmund, chair of the
property law committee of the Missouri Bar Association. Sellers may also be
allowed to conceal a home's meth lab past if the house has gone through
decontamination.
Some signs of homes that could be a possible previous meth
lab are: homes that have been foreclosed, single family homes rather than
apartments, a house with a history of police visits. It is also a good idea to
talk with the surrounding neighbors about the homes history, call the police
for any arrests or drug busts, or even call the health department.
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