It isn’t just the illegal hunter or fisherman that Department of Natural Resources officers, forestry officials and others have to worry about these days. More and more they have to be on the lookout for methamphetamine labs.
“We have to deal with it a fair amount in recreational areas,” said Henry Barnett of the Clemson office of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Law Enforcement Division.
Meth makers like isolated locations, said Michael Miller, director of the Anderson-Oconee Regional Forensics Laboratory, and with the heat on them being turned up in urban areas, it’s natural that they would make use of the opportunities of the Upstate’s woodland areas.
Greenville, Oconee and Anderson counties lead the state in seized meth labs, Miller said, and officers whose job it is to prowl the isolated areas need to know the dangers, which go far beyond those normal when dealing with criminal suspects.
Meth itself produces extremely violent reactions in those who use it, he said, but meth labs could be just as dangerous to enforcement officers.
From The Independent Mail: https://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/sep/16/meth-labs-newest-danger-in-the-back-country/