Detecting Meth Labs

One local detective said 95 percent of meth labs in our area are a variety known as the one pot method.

These labs use plastic bottles filled with chemicals to make the meth. The process also makes it easier to take meth making on the road.

Muskingum County Sheriff Detective Matthew Wilhite said this is the favored way of cooking meth in our area because of the cost and the availability of the products needed to make the meth are easy to obtain.

“They can obtain them through other people. They recruit people to go out and buy the products. It’s so cheap. You can spend 30-60 dollars on the chemicals to make 3, 6, 7 grams of meth and at price of 100 dollars a gram you’re one cook and you’re above the price of the chemicals,” said Wilhite.

Wilhite said although they saw a slight dip in meth labs last year due to the spike in Crystal Meth from Mexican drug cartels, he along with his partner have gone on six labs in the last two weeks. One in Frazeysburg the other at a home in Crooksville.

Wilhite said there are some signs a meth lab may be near you.

“The smell you’re going to have a strong ether chemical smell, Coleman fuel, lithium batteries give off a strong odor most people wouldn’t know what that smells like, but it’s a chemical odor,” explained Wilhite.

Wilhite also said if you see plastic bottles along the road containing a solid off white substance with black specks or bottles with tubes or a hole punctured in the lid chances are it could be remnants of a meth lab.

He said if you see these items do not touch them, stay downwind from them and call authorities immediately.