Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN) Copyright: 2005 Star Tribune Contact: http://www.startribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266 Author: Donna Halvorsen Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METH WASTE POSES DANGER As volunteers cleaned up roadside litter this spring, the state Health Department warned that they might come across the discarded remains of methamphetamine drug labs that could be dangerous if inhaled or touched. Some counties have been dealing with the meth problem for five years or more. Meth labs once were largely confined to rural areas, but the problem is moving closer to the Twin Cities, officials say. "It's not just something people are doing on farms anymore," said Deborah Durkin, an environmental scientist in the Health Department's methamphetamine program who has spoken increasingly to Twin Cities groups about meth in the past year. "The pattern throughout the Midwest is rural saturation followed by increased numbers of users and meth-makers in urban areas." Durkin said she has heard of injuries from opening chemical bottles or picking up meth waste, but none that was serious. "Nobody's keeping track of that in any way," she said. "There isn't as much concern as probably there should be. Typically, nobody gets too concerned until somebody gets hurt." Anoka County led the state in meth lab seizures last year, with 21, followed by Ramsey County with 14, Blue Earth County with 12 and Dakota, Sherburne, Mille Lacs and Olmsted counties with 10 each. "It's an epidemic, and it has been for some time," said Capt. Dave Jenkins of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office, noting that meth waste isn't found just along roadways anymore. "We're finding an increase in labs that have been discarded either in public dumpsters in commercial areas, city hall [bins], recycling centers and on the side of the road," Jenkins said. "We've found several in city parks as well. Typically, they'll disguise it by putting it in a duffel bag or a sealable large Rubbermaid container or something like that." In Dakota County, nearly half the 1,100 drug arrests last year were for the manufacture, sale and use of methamphetamine. "We've had our fair share of abandoned meth labs," said Sgt. John Grant, supervisor of the Dakota County Drug Task Force. "Cooks just basically dump their components along the roadside. We come across those quite a bit." In Chisago County this spring, citizens and others cleaning up roadsides frequently were finding cold medicine packaging and anhydrous tanks, which resemble propane tanks. One tank being retrieved by a lab technician blew up, but the technician wasn't hurt, Sheriff Todd Rivard said. "Someone else who didn't know what they were doing might have gotten hurt," he said. "You shouldn't touch any of them, but the ones with green valves could blow up if there's stuff in it, and it's pressurized. Normally, [meth-makers] don't throw out a tank that's got anhydrous in it." The amount of waste found along Isanti County roads "definitely shows the volume of manufacturing that's going on in the county, that's for sure," Sheriff's Department investigator Chris Janssen said. "It's definitely local people who are making the meth and dumping the waste. They're not going to drive 20 miles in their car to get rid of it. They don't want to get caught with it." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth