A trend elsewhere, few mobile meth labs here

A change in medication sales and a change in anhydrous ammonia delivery policy have all but elminated a drug problem that is becoming more prevalent in the eastern part of the U.S., — mobile methamphetamine labs.

Even though the labs are rare now in Pratt County everyone has to remain vigilant or moving meth labs could make a comeback, said Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn. 

When Kansas’s lawmakers put products with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine behind the counter they took away easy access to a vital element in meth production, said Pratt Police Detective Jeff Ward.

“It put a damper on the manufacture of meth. It’s not like it was several years ago,” Ward said. “We haven’t had any labs in several years. They seem to be on the decline.”

The other action that hurt meth production was grain elevators and cooperatives removing hoses from anhydrous tanks before they were delivered. Without meth and anhydrous ammonia, both vital elements in meth production, in-home and mobile meth labs have all but disappeared in Pratt County, Chinn said.

The changes have been so successful that Pratt County hasn’t discovered a moving lab in years. But that hasn’t always been the case.

From 2002 to 2004, meth labs were showing up frequently in Pratt County. What Pratt saw then is now showing up on the east coast.

Moving those medicines behind the counter caused a 60 percent drop in meth labs in Kansas in the first year it was enacted, Chinn said.

Without easy access to large quantities of ephedrine or pseudo ephedrine mobile labs began to appear. The mobile labs make much smaller amounts and are then discarded often the side of a rural road. The smaller labs took less medicine and less anhydrous ammonia to make a small batch. But even those small labs are disappearing.

The amount of lab trash in dumpsters and on the county roads from in-home and mobile labs is almost nothing.

“It’s dramatically decreased in the last five years,” Ward said.

Another reason labs have disappeared is the quality of meth from other states is better and the risk of prison is less if the meth is purchased rather than manufactured. Manufacture of meth carries a mandatory prison sentence while possession, depending on past criminal record, is not necessarily a presumptive prison sentence, Ward said.

Manufacturing meth is also dangerous, not only for the manufacturer but for the community as well.

While the labs are disappearing it is impossible to eliminate them completely because a certain group in society will use meth as an escape.

“Substance abuse is about avoiding reality,” Chinn said.

The most convenient way to get rid of a meth lab is to just throw it onto the side of a road. Items usually associated with a portable meth lab are any kind of insulated ice chest to hold the anhydrous and a two-liter drink container with a hose sticking out of the bottle. Anyone finding these items at the side of a road should leave the material alone and notify local law enforcement immediately, Chinn said.

While Pratt County is Even with the lack of anhydrous ammonia and Sudafed the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is reporting an increase in home labs again.

Another factor in stopping the production of meth in Pratt County is education and public cooperation. It was just such cooperation when a farmer in the Coats area called in some suspicious activity by an anhydrous ammonia tank. It resulted in shutting down one of the biggest meth lab operations in the county, Chinn said.

The county was first hit hard with meth in 1999 when it was almost unknown. But in just six months the county had so many cases and cases pending they were almost overwhelmed.

The meth problem started on the west coast in 1960 and then gradually moved eastward across the U.S. reaching this area around 2002.