Shortly after midnight on June 7, 2003, a thief escaped with
a small quantity of anhydrous ammonia from a farm-supply
company in Atlanta, Mo. That was not big news; anhydrous
theft occurs with numbing frequency in parts of rural
America. But this particular thief left the nurse-tank valve
open, and a cloud of anhydrous formed and floated over U.S.
Hwy. 63.
The drivers of two tractor-trailer trucks drove into the
cloud, were overcome and jerked to a halt in the middle of
the road. A car carrying two young women didn't see the
trucks until it was too late and plowed into them. Up the
road, a family of four also was overcome by the cloud of
anhydrous. Their car ran off the road and smashed into an
embankment.
No one was killed in the Atlanta accidents, but there were
several serious injuries, including a Highway Patrol officer
and two emergency responders who breathed toxic fumes at the
rescue scenes. Authorities are still trying to find the
thief.
But they have their work cut out for them. Anhydrous thieves
are as thick as mosquitoes after dark across large sections
of the Midwest and Southwest, and they are spreading into
the Mid-South and Southeast.
Thieves steal anhydrous because it is a key ingredient for
making the illegal drug methamphetamine, which is known
simply as meth. They sneak a gallon or two of anhydrous to a
makeshift lab, often in the countryside, and use it to brew
up enough of the potent drug to sell or to maintain their
own drug habits. Then they dismantle their lab and are
gone.
The thrills are high and the profits are higher for these
clandestine labs. That's why the meth industry is exploding
in rural areas.
"Meth has become the most dangerous drug problem in
small-town America," notes a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration report.
Last year, authorities in Missouri seized more than 2,700
"tabletop" meth labs, many in rural areas close to ready
supplies of anhydrous. Missouri's meth-lab numbers are the
highest in the country, but neighboring states also have
growing meth problems. For instance, in only six Oklahoma
counties law officers busted 1,200 meth labs in 2001. And in
Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, a drug task force
reports that the three states "are experiencing a dramatic
escalation in the methamphetamine threat," as meth-lab
confiscations tripled between 2000 and 2001. Reports from
Ohio, Alabama and Georgia also indicate that meth production
is on the rise, largely in rural areas of those states.
Why should you care?
Meth-related accidents like the one in Missouri are
occurring more often. Three years ago, for instance, a
similarly careless thief caused an anhydrous leak that led
to the evacuation of much of the town of Pleasant Hill,
Mo.
Rural meth labs pose other dangers too. Some of the
chemicals they require are toxic, highly flammable and
explosive. Put those chemicals in the hands of drug-addled
"technicians," and it's easy to understand why meth-lab
explosions happen so frequently. And when those same
technicians surreptitiously dispose of the leftover
chemicals, they often just pitch them anywhere, including
drainage ditches and water supplies.
It gets worse. Meth users are not the most stable members of
our society; they often become paranoid or psychotic and
they are often armed-another formula for danger. "Drug users
like these can be violent," says Shirley Armstrong of the
DEA's St. Louis office.