Chances Are You Live Near A Former Meth Lab In Lakewood

LAKEWOOD, CO – 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 individuals from Colorado.

The problem is so widespread that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has tracked addresses where law enforcement agencies reportedly found chemicals or other items suggesting the site is home to either clandestine drug labs or dumpsites. The most recent addresses are several years old, but they show a snapshot of where meth labs have been located in Lakewood.

The folks at Rehabs.com recently took the data and created an interactive map so you can see the former drug den nearest you.

According to the map, the DEA tracked 269 clandestine labs in Colorado between 2004-2017. Lakewood was the home of 15 clandestine meth labs tracked between 2004-2014, among a total of 28 listed in Jefferson County.

Here are the blocks where Lakewood meth labs were listed by the DEA:

• 8100 West 6th Avenue, Lakewood CO -busted 08/17/2006
• 300 Zang Street, Lakewood CO -busted 01/25/2008
• 3200 South Newcombe Street, Lakewood CO -busted 09/10/2008
• 1300 N Estes St Lakewood CO -busted 04/11/2004
• 1000 S Pierce St Lakewood CO -busted 05/19/2004
• 200 S Ingalls St., Lakewood CO -busted 07/31/2004
• 10200 W Mississippi Ave, Lakewood CO -busted 08/08/2004
• 6700 W 14th Ave, Lakewood CO -busted 08/09/2004
• 18900 N Kendall St, Lakewood CO -busted 09/08/2004
• 3200 S Garrison St Lakewood CO -busted 09/10/2004
• 10200 W Mississippi Ave, Lakewood CO -busted 08/08/2004
• 6700 W 14th Ave, Lakewood CO -busted 08/09/2004
• 18900 N Kendall St, Lakewood CO -busted 09/08/2004
• 3200 S Garrison St, Lakewood CO -busted 09/10/2004
• 2800 S Eldridge Ct Lakewood CO -busted 09/20/2004

Eleven other Lakewood meth lab busts took place between 2007 and 2014, as tracked by the West Metro Drug Task Force, according to Lakewood Public Information Agent Robert Albrets.

"Some of these were single family houses and others were motel rooms or apartments or something else," Albrets said in an email.

Below are the additional meth lab busts per year in Lakewood:

2007 - 3
2008 - 2
2010 - 4
2013 - 1
2014 - 2

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.

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, colloquially called “meth mouth.”

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.

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.