Missouri Leads Nation in Methamphetamine Lab Busts

The number of methamphetamine lab seizures in the United States rose again last year, according to an Associated Press survey of the nation’s top meth-producing states.

Methamphetamine is a powerfully addictive and dangerous drug that maintained a tight grip in states like Missouri, with 2,096 lab seizures in 2011, followed by Tennessee with 1,687, Indiana with 1,437, Kentucky with 1,188 and Oklahoma with 902.

For all but Missouri, the AP survey shows that numbers are higher than the federal data. The Drug Enforcement Administration numbers say that meth lab seizures remained about even during the past two years.

The combined data suggest that nationwide meth lab seizures were up at least 8.3 percent in 2011 compared with 2010.

Some attribute the continued increase on the addictiveness of methamphetamine and the growing popularity of “shake-and-bake,” a meth-making shortcut where the drug is created quickly in a soda bottle. The result is smaller labs, but more of them.