Developing a Strategy for a Multiagency Response to Clandestine Drug Laboratories211 (Revised)

摘要

Methamphetamine abuse, trafficking, and production is a fast-growing national211u001eproblem that has been likened to the crack cocaine epidemic of the early 1990s. 211u001eIn the past few years, methamphetamine abuse and production has spread from the 211u001eWest to the Southwest and Midwestern regions of the country, and is moving 211u001eeastward into such states as Arkansas, Georgia, and even Florida. Methamphetamine 211u001eis relatively simple to manufacture from commonly available ingredients. These 211u001echemicals and the waste products produced during the manufacturing process are 211u001edangerous to human health and the environment. Clandestine laboratories used to 211u001emanufacture methamphetamine often house substantial quantities of highly toxic, 211u001ecorrosive, and explosive chemicals. They may be operated on an intermittent and 211u001etransient basis in such locations as hotel/motel rooms, barns, trailers, 211u001eapartments, and rural sites. Laboratory operators display little regard for the 211u001eenvironment, and as a result, clandestine laboratory sites have been the scene of 211u001eexplosions, fires, toxic fumes, environmental damage, and numerous injuries and 211u001edeaths. For every pound of finished product, five to six pounds of hazardous 211u001echemical waste is produced. Seizing or 'taking down' a lab requires a 211u001estrategically precise enforcement action, often involving Federal, State, and 211u001elocal law enforcement. Once seized, the lab remains a potential hazardous waste 211u001esite, often with large quantities of potentially toxic chemicals, as well as an 211u001earray of unknown corrosives, carcinogens, and combustibles. Clandestine 211u001elaboratory enforcement efforts, unlike other narcotics cases, are complicated by 211u001ethe presence of these hazardous materials. It is this complication that demands 211u001eexpansion of the traditional narcotics task force investigation and prosecution 211u001eto encompass health, occupational safety, and environmental agencies' approaches.