The DEA has given local police money to clean up meth labs -- which pose a health and environmental hazard -- but that money is drying up, and it doesn't look like it's coming back anytime soon. The AP interviewed several police groups who say this might lead law-enforcement agencies to stop looking for meth labs. (The Justice Department is calling shenanigasn on that score.)
The really interesting part of the AP story, for Missourians at least, is several paragraphs into the story, where we learn that Missouri actually has its act together when it comes to meth-lab cleanup.
Missouri, which was long the nation's top meth producer, began training local law enforcement officials to remove and dispose of hazardous materials and established more than 20 sites around the state for the disposal of those materials.
As a result, a typical meth lab cleanup in Missouri costs $500 or $600 -- far less than the $3,000 to $10,000 the DEA typically pays cleanup contractors, said Jason Grellner, a Franklin County, Mo., police officer and vice president of the Missouri Narcotics Officers Association.
