“Most of them can’t put food on the table,” Wright said.
The mobility of the one-pot cooking method means meth is made everywhere, and it’s impact on the environment is unknown but a concern. Allen said common cooking sites, along with automobiles, include creek banks accessible only by four-wheelers, boats in the middle of a lake and motel rooms.
Most of the ingredients in meth production are labeled flammable, hazardous or corrosive, and the leftover mess is expensive to clean up. For each lab that is discovered, between $2,000 and $2,400 is spent to decontaminate the site and dispose of the waste, work done by certified responders in HAZMAT gear and respirators, said Spencer, the crime analyst for KSP.
An untold number of cookers get burned in the process and go to emergency rooms for treatment, the cost of which is usually borne by taxpayers.
