BARTOW -- A new recipe for methamphetamine is circulating, making it easier for addicts to get their hands on the potent drug.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd warned the popular new recipe is easy to make.
“If you can bake a cake, you can make methamphetamine,” Judd said.
Judd said one of his narcotics officers was able to buy the necessary supplies from Walmart and Walgreens with just $57.
According to the sheriff, a few grams of meth can be cooked in plastic soda bottles in less than an hour.
“What kind of person would put a chemical in their system that consisted of Liquid Plumr and fertilizer?” Judd said.
The quantities are smaller, but they are just as potent as what meth manufacturers used to cook in labs before laws passed in 2006 made the key ingredient, pseudoephedrine, harder to obtain.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said they have seized 26 of the one-bottle meth labs so far this year. That is the highest number of labs busted since 2002, when the agency busted 18 of the more elaborate labs.
Judd said, manufacturing the drug is dangerous for reasons beyond the drug, itself. According to him, the new method of cooking meth is particularly dangerous, because the chemicals can spontaneously combust.
Judd said if you see plastic bottles with residue on the bottom and chemicals nearby, contact authorities.
Information from News 13’s Bright House Networks affiliate, Bay News 9, was used in this report.
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