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Louisiana is becoming a Mecca for making methamphetamine, a cheap drug cutting a swath of addiction and crime through the rural South.
This drug is destroying rural communities that at one time had no crime and resembled Mayberry, said special agent Bill Renton with the New Orleans division of the DEA. But then the meth gets in and with it comes tremendous problems. There was a small town in Missouri - they never had any crime. Then one day a female sheriff responds to a call and is shot and killed by a guy cooking meth.
Strict laws in neighboring states restricting access to key ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, commonly found in cold medicines, have driven meth cookers into Louisiana in frightening numbers, said Sgt. Dave Gorman, director of the Tri-Parish Narcotics Task Force that covers Tangipahoa, St. Helena and Livingston parishes.
Since 2000, his team has taken down more than 300 methamphetamine labs at an average cost of $4,500 per lab. Prior to 2000, Gorman said these labs were virtually nonexistent in southeast Louisiana.
The U.S. Department of Justice reports the amount of methamphetamine seized in Louisiana increased from .8 kilograms in...