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Meth presents new dangers for law enforcement
June 11, 2004
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| This is crystal meth, also called "glass" or "ice." It's a more refined version of the drug that can sell for up to $200 a gram. Police officers in rural Minnesota say they've seen a dramatic increase in meth in recent years. Only 20 percent of meth is made here in Minnesota, but most of that is made in rural areas of the state. (MPR Photo/Tim Post) |
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Douglas County, Minn. — It's a Saturday night and Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Rich Homan is looking for a reckless driver who's been cutting people off on Interstate 94. He finds him in the small central Minnesota town of Brandon. This time it's a familiar traffic stop for Homan. The drug of choice in this case is alcohol. Homan spends more than an hour testing the driver, having his car towed, and then driving him to a nearby town so he can get a ride home.
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|  Trooper Homan | | |
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Dealing with drunken drivers, speeding drivers or even people who don't buckle up is a big part of Homan's job. But he's always digging a little deeper. Trooper Homan knows almost any traffic stop could turn into a search for drugs.
In recent years, Homan has seen more and more drugs in rural Minnesota. And most often what he finds is meth.
"It's all over out here. Meth is the drug of choice. It's so easily available, they're popping up these meth labs all over. They're portable, you can pop them up real quick, cook up meth and they're gone in no time," Homan said.
Officials estimate 20 percent of the meth used in Minnesota is made in the state. Most of that is made in rural locations, where there are fewer nosey neighbors who might smell the solvents and chemicals involved.
The recipes for meth vary, but they all start with over-the-counter cold medicine. The pills are crushed then mixed with various kinds of acids or solvents. The process is called "cooking."
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| Meth making ingredients | | |
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For Trooper Homan, the increase in meth means more than just extra work. Meth makes his job more dangerous. Meth affects people differently than other drugs. Cops say meth just makes people crazy.
Homan says he can tell when someone has been using meth. They're on edge. They look like they haven't slept for days. Often they have scratches on their face and arms. The drug affects the nervous system, so some meth users think they've got bugs under their skin. They scratch themselves until they're covered with open sores.
If Homan suspects someone is on meth, he uses a calm voice, and makes no quick movements. He says it's tough to know what will set off a meth user.
"People on meth are very paranoid. They think everybody is watching them, everybody is after them. You have to be careful with those people, because you don't know what they are going to do," Homan said. "Especially with someone that's been on a meth binge for four or five days without any sleep, it could be a dangerous situation."
It's a situation some Minnesota cops have faced. Sgt. Todd Hoffman is one of them. Hoffman works in Wright County with the sheriff department's drug task force. In 2001, he and another drug officer were investigating a meth case in Eden Valley, Minnesota. A man was making some suspicious purchases, like solvents and large amounts of cold medicine. Local officials thought he might be cooking meth.
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| Sgt. Todd Hoffman | | |
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Hoffman went to the man's house to question him. The man fled into his house. The officers followed him, but by the time they got to the kitchen, the suspect had grabbed a loaded .357 Magnum handgun.
"He grabbed at the gun and turned to shoot, but luckily I got my hand around the hammer of the gun and we fell to the floor. He was trying to squeeze back the trigger, but it wouldn't go back because my hand was covering it," Hoffman said.
Hoffman, his partner and the suspect wrestled on the floor for several minutes. Hoffman was losing his grip on the gun, which was pointed directly at his chest. He did the only thing he could to end the tussle.
"I bit through his elbow and he let go of the gun. We cuffed him up, got a search warrant for the house. And sure enough, there was an active meth lab in a hidden room in the basement. That's what he wasn't trying to protect," Hoffman said.
Once an arrest is made, there's a new problem. The recipe for meth is a list of toxic substances. A meth cook creates a hazardous cloud of chemicals that can cause serious health problems.
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| Suited up | | |
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In 1999, Hoffman was called to a fish house on a Wright County lake. Nearby anglers could smell a strong chemical odor coming from the fish house, and suspected a meth cook. When Hoffman arrived, he found a Thermos bottle on the frozen lake. The bottle was full of anhydrous ammonia, one of the critical compounds for making meth. When Hoffman picked up the bottle, it released a cloud of gas.
"When the fumes hit my face, my skin immediately began to burn. My throat closed, I wasn't able to breath for five or 10 seconds," Hoffman recalled. "I put my hand on my face, and as I pulled my hands away my gloves were covered with liquid. Basically I thought my face was dissolving."
Hoffman was rushed to the emergency room. He wasn't badly injured, but he's not sure how or if that exposure will affect him later in life.
The incident taught Hoffman a lesson he shares with other police officers when he gets the chance.
"Don't handle any of the chemicals that you find, or glassware or items from the meth lab. If you're not trained in -- and you're not certified by OSHA in -- dismantling them, stay away from them, because you're going to be injured," Hoffman said.
That's a message the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are trying to get across too.
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| Cleaning up | | |
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The DEA and the BCA trains police officers from across the state on how to deal with the dangers of meth. The DEA's John Cotner says for too long, police officers have been sent into meth labs without the proper training.
"We're finding as we go out do training, we're seeing people who say, 'Hey, I've seen this before, I remember a couple of years ago I saw something that looked like that.' They were in a meth lab and didn't even know it," Cotner said.
Cotner says they teach police to watch for the ingredients and equipment needed to make meth.
Alarms should go off for an officer if they see excessive amounts of chemicals like brake cleaner or drain cleaner, phosphorous from matches, alkaline batteries, coffee filters and empty natural gas tanks.
That's information Deputy Tom Meiers with the Pine County Sheriff's Department wishes he had long ago.
"One time I walked in and there was quite a few lye bottles on the counter. And I didn't think nothing of it, they're cleaning their drains," Meiers recalled. "Nobody's going through that much lye unless they're cooking (meth), so I placed myself in jeopardy, and I didn't know it."
Teaching officers to spot signs of meth is simple compared to the other goal of this training -- to ignore one of their deepest instincts.
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| Paul Stevens | | |
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The BCA's Paul Stevens says in the case of meth labs, police and other first responders shouldn't do what they normally do, and rush into an uncertain situation.
"We have too many officers across the country who are getting very sick from going into too many meth labs and not taking the appropriate safety measures," Stevens said. "Because firemen and policemen and first responders have always in the past rushed in to do the right thing. This is one of those times that we have to rethink our actions, or there can be very serious consequences for themselves and their families."
Law enforcement officials say that's a hard line to take, but a necessary one in the battle against meth. They say if there's any hope of fighting the drug, Minnesota police officers can't become victims of meth themselves.
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