Pubdate: Mon, 15 May 2001
Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY)
Copyright: 2001 St. Lawrence County Newspapers Corp
Contact: Accepts LTEs by mail only!
Website: http://www.ogd.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/689
Author:  Associated Press
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Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METH LABS MOVE TO FORESTS

Ashford, Wash. In the Tahoma State Forest in the shadow of Mount Rainier, 
hikers and hunters have been displaced by men in moon suits searching for 
contamination from methamphetamine labs and roping off sickly brown "dead 
zones" where meth making's poisonous byproducts were dumped.

It's part of what authorities say is a national trend; As police crack down 
on methamphetamine in cities and towns, makers of the highly addictive drug 
are moving to vast, lightly patrolled state and federal forests to set up 
their labs.  The number of busted meth labs increased tenfold over the past 
year in Washington state alone.

"It poses a danger to anyone out there in the woods," said forester Bob 
Brown of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, "Somebody could 
get killed or injured very badly by this stuff."

The simplicity of making meth, cheap to produce, with a potent high, has 
fueled its popularity.  When users eat, inject or snort meth it makes them 
feel euphoric, energized and powerful.  Addicts can go days without 
sleep.  But the drug's downsides strike quickly: irritability, paranoia, 
aggression and violence.  The Tahoma forest was closed last month until at 
least June 10 after lab including open containers of solution with a pH of 
14, corrosive enough to burn flesh off bones.  A blast of anhydrous 
ammonia, a meth ingredient that leaches moisture from whatever it touches, 
could "take you eyeball and shrink it down to the size of a raisin," says 
Ashford Fire Chief Jim Gregory.  Closing an entire forest for a meth lab 
cleanup was a first in Washington, and no national forest has ever been 
shut down because of meth, said Kim Thorsen, deputy director for law 
enforcement and investigation at the Forest Service.
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