Map Shows Discovered Meth Labs In Ohio

Methamphetamine, the powerful and highly addictive stimulant that gained national fame with the hit AMC show “Breaking Bad,” is an extremely serious problem in the United States. A 2017 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 5.4 percent of people at least 12 years old had tried meth at least once in their lifetime. That number was 3 percent for adults 18 to 25, and 6.4 percent for adults ages 26 and older.

Those numbers include many people from Ohio.

Meth use is so widespread the DEA tracks addresses where law enforcement agencies reportedly found chemicals or other items suggesting the site is home to either clandestine drug labs or dumpsites.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), there have been 1,283 clandestine labs in Ohio. There were 16 total labs in Cuyahoga County, including six labs located in Cleveland, one in Lakewood (from a 2010 incident), one in Shaker Heights (from a 2009 incident). Akron had hundreds of labs recorded in the DEA database.

Last year, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office issued a statement saying meth use was spiking in Northeast Ohio. The increase in meth use hadn't caused a spike in overdoses, but Dr. Thomas Gilson said he was worried about the well-being of the community.

Meth abusers often experience mental, social and medical problems, including memory loss, aggressive or psychotic behavior, heart damage, malnutrition and, as you’re probably already aware, severe dental problems.

Meth is usually seen as a white, bitter-tasting powder or a pill. Crystal meth, meanwhile, is a form of the drug that looks like glass fragments or shiny, bluish-white rocks. Chemically, it’s similar to amphetamines, a drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.

Rehabs.com is a website developed and maintained by Recovery Brands, LLC, a subsidiary of American Addiction Centers, Inc. The addiction center provides both residential and outpatient addiction treatment services. According to the site’s analysis of DEA data, meth labs are concentrated in the American Heartland. Missouri has the most labs with 27.6 per 100,000 residents.

While the DEA registry doesn’t allow you to search by address, the folks at Rehabs.com took the data and created an interactive map so you can see the drug den nearest you.

Here are the five states with the most meth labs per capita:

1. Missouri, 27.6
2. Arkansas, 24.7
3. Oklahoma, 23.7
4. Mississippi, 21.2
5. Indiana, 20.1

Meanwhile, states in the Northeast tend to have the least meth labs per capita. That includes Connecticut, which has the least of any at 0.06 labs per 100,000 residents. Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland rounded out the bottom five.

“Breaking Bad’s” last season premiered on July 15, 2012 and concluded Sept. 29, 2013. Interestingly, 2012 and 2013 represented the two years with the highest number of net grams of meth seized between 2007 and 2016, according to Rehabs.com. In 2012, more than 2.4 million grams were seized. A year later, that number was just over 2 million. In contrast, that number was about half in 2016 at about 1 million net grams.

The report used data from the DEA’s National Clandestine Laboratory Register and Drug Seizure Database from 2007 through 2016. There were nearly 30,000. These are not all the clandestine laboratories in America, the authors noted. These are only the labs the DEA uncovered.

The authors added that they used data related to the state where the substance was obtained, as well as to the method of acquisition, drug name, net weight, potency, calendar year collected, and value of the seized meth.

“Drug production often entails some agricultural element; poppy, cocoa, or marijuana cultivation can utilize vast tracts of land,” the authors wrote. “But because meth can be made using inexpensive chemicals found in over-the-counter medications, it lends itself to clandestine manufacture inside inconspicuous buildings.”

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.