| Updated: 4/15/2009 9:33 pm |
Published: 4/15/2009 3:37 pm
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Cops call them home-made bombs. Tulsa police vow to stop the exploding problem of meth labs. So far this year, police have uncovered 71 labs. That’s almost double the number they found all last year. Add the 32 labs the Tulsa County Drug Task Force has uncovered, and the total tops 100. As FOX 23’s Douglas Clark reports, officers from several divisions are now forming a meth lab task force to combat the problem.
“It was pretty scary.”
It was 4:00 the morning of March 3rd. Royal Arms Apartment resident Donna Leverette was awakened by a firefighter banging on her door. Once out of her apartment, she couldn’t believe what she saw just one building away.
“Flames shooting 50-60 feet in the air. They were shooting water on it from both sides of the building,” recalls Leverette.
The fire was the result of a meth lab that had exploded, killing two and critically injuring another. Police say the skyrocketing number of meth labs is not only a danger to the public, but a burden on police.
“It’s really been a big drain on the city and community,” says Tulsa police officer Leland Ashley.
So why the surge? A few years ago the state enacted a law that requires pharmacies to ask for an ID when anyone buys pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient for making meth. That information is then sent to a central database. But meth-makers often get around the law by driving to multiple pharmacies or paying other people to buy pseudoephedrine for them.
Combine that with the use of fake ID’s with different names, police have an uphill battle. And other meth ingredients like rock salt and drain cleaner can be bought at hardware stores without an ID.
