Meth waste poses environmental danger

Methamphetamine brews in clandestine labs across the rural landscape as well as urban communities.

According to Casey McEnry, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, an estimated six pounds of waste is produced per every pound of methamphetamine made. According to the California Attorney General's Office, in 1997, $8 million was spent cleaning up hazardous waste found at 1,600 clandestine labs.

Besides the dumping of hazardous byproducts, the proliferation of methamphetamine has garnered national attention recently with the final phase of the Combat Methamphetamine Act going into effect last month.

The new federal law requires cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed and Claritin D, be placed behind the counter at pharmacies. It also restricts the amount of pseudoephedrine-containing medications that one person can buy in one day or over the course of a month.

Law enforcement officials hope the new law will deter people from "smurfing," which is the act of going from store to store to purchase ingredients, such as household chemical products that can later be used to make meth.

An estimated 80 percent of the drug cases the district attorney's office in San Mateo County handles involve methamphetamine. The drug of choice changed four or five years ago from rock cocaine to methamphetamine.