<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"It is the latest drug menace: meth. The number of busts across our region has shot up over the past year.Police say a big part of that massive spike in meth cases is due to something called the \"one-pot meth lab.\"Troopers working with state police in both Vermont and New York say the meth problem will likely get worse before it gets better.The reason?Many people are often uninformed or unaware. Even some first responders might not know when they stumble upon a hazardous lab.\u201CI don't see any potential decrease. I think it will only get worse, and it's certainly something that can destroy communities,\u201D New York State Police Lt. Brent Davison said.It's a new one-pot method using fewer ingredients in smaller quantities, usually made in a plastic, two-liter bottle. It's more portable and users and dealers are catching on quickly to the new recipe.\u201CThey're literally using household items plastic, soda or Gatorade bottles and the Sudafed and in maybe 90 minutes or so they're producing meth,\u201D Davison explained.Between 1999 and 2011, a 12-year period, New York state troopers responded to four meth labs in Clinton County. Last year alone, there were 14, and there are likely more on the way.\u201CWe're gathering intelligence right now and building a list of potential suspects and it's not going to go away at all,\u201D Davison said.Although Vermont\u2019s meth lab numbers are lower -- six in just over a year.\u00A0That's still the most the Green Mountain State has ever seen, and Vermont State Police Lt. Reg Trayah expects that number will continue to grow.\u201CIf it hits here and hits hard, it'll be worse than anything we've probably experienced. The hardest part for us is that everything they that need to make meth in the one-pot method is legal to purchase,\u201D Trayah said.Once you know how to make it, it's easy to get the ingredients for the one-pot meth recipe.Just walk into any store and you can pick up what you need: a short list of mostly toxic ingredients that when mixed together form an explosive batch of homemade methamphetamine.\u201COur people are not allowed to go near it unless they have special suits on and stuff to protect themselves. So it's scary to think that people are cooking this in their house in and around their children,\u201D Davison said.And because most of the ingredients are things you could find in any household, the labs can be hard to identify even for first responders.\u201CI know that people have seen these before. They just didn't know what they were looking at,\u201D Trayah added.Vermont state troopers are working on education with police, fire and rescue crews.With a more aware population, they say they'll likely find more meth labs.\u00A0\u201CHopefully next year we're going to have even more and the year after. And eventually it's going to get to a point, you know what? You want to cook meth? You're going to get caught. So don't cook meth,\u201D Trayah added.\u201CIt's just something that can completely tear apart a community and that's not to mention the taxpayer costs that goes along with responding to and cleaning this stuff up and dealing with the people in the criminal justice system,\u201D Davison said.Meth is made through a chemical reaction, and if it is mixed incorrectly, the lab can explode. So in some ways this is even more dangerous than other drugs.That\u2019s why troopers say you should be on the lookout for large quantities of Coleman fuel, Sudafed and lithium batteries among other things. \u00A0\u00A0Click here to view The Meth Menace: Part 2.Click here to view The Meth Menace: Part 3.Mug Shots: Meth takes a frightening toll on addictsUsing the WPTZ app? Click here to view Mug Shots: Meth takes a frightening toll on addicts"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.mynbc5.com/article/the-meth-menace-the-growth-of-the-one-pot-lab/3307610>