Meth production expands as police forces shrink

"One pot" meth labs, in which the drug is cooked in a two-liter pop bottle, are increasing at the same time many police departments across the country are shrinking, reports Ana Campoy of The Wall Street Journal. The method has all but replaced kitchen-size labs because ingredients can easily be attained and mixed almost anywhere, and that makes perpetrators hard to find and stop.

Campoy reports that so much police time is spent trying to stop the manufacturing of meth, other larger illegal drug activity like global cartels, cocaine and heroin are ignored. Police in Tulsa have busted 15 percent more meth-lab busts this year than last year, while the department cut 70 officers. In Vanderburgh County and Evansville, Ind., the meth case load has grown so much, police designated three investigators out of their 20-member narcotics task force to deal with it full-time.

In Christiansburg, Va., This year, the police department is paying $6,000 to meth-lab informants. The DEA gave Christiansburg money to clean up one pot-labs, but it was gone before the end of last year. Nationally, incidents related to meth production rose above 11,000 last year, after falling sharply to around 6,000 in 2007, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. (Read more)