Meth lab explosions on the rise

The fate of two men critically injured in an explosion at a Newton meth labthis week is still not clear. But Dale Woolery, the acting director of thegovernor’s office of drug-control policy, says the state is still seeing anexplosion in the number of meth labs uncovered by authorities. Though notincreasing as rapidly as they did five to seven years ago, over 830 methlabs have been found so far this year. Last year, authorities discovered768. Woolery says there are a couple reasons busts of meth labs continue toincrease. Woolery says more people report the labs because there’sawareness of what they look and smell lie and cops have gotten better atinvestigating. He says the drug’s very addictive and most of those making itare addicted to it, so it’ll be tough to stop them. Woolery says with theonset of cold weather, the illegal labs move indoors where they may be moreeasily detected, but also pose a greater danger to neighbors. The ether andother chemicals used to make meth are highly-flammable and prone to explode,so Woolery says the prospect rises for more fires and injuries. The labseven pose a danger to the great outdoors…the countryside where they windup. The disposal after the meth is cooked will put debris and chemicals intorivers and likely has a bad environmental effect since the chemicals aretoxic.