02/17/11 The Indiana State Police Methamphetamine Suppression Section has completed compilation of statistical information for the year 2010, related to methamphetamine laboratories in Indiana. 2010 was a record breaking year for all categories of meth related activities.
Locally Kosciusko County had 85 and ranked 2nd for meth labs in the state. They were followed by Elkhart with 71 ranking 4th and Marshall County with 53 ranking 8th.
Looking back through the years since 2003 Marshall County was 20th in 2003, 8th in 2004, and 2nd in 2005. The County dropped to 3rd in 2006 with 46 labs, tied for 6th in 2007 with 28 labs, dropped down to 8th in 2008 with 41 labs, rose to the second highest county in 2009 with 83, and last year finished 8th in the state.
The State of Indiana had a total of 1,346 lab incidents during 2010.
The Indiana State Police report shows the Bremen Post, District 24 as the top district in the state for labs seized. The district is made up of Kosciusko County who was ranked 2nd last year with 85 labs, Elkhart County who was 4th with 71 labs, Marshall County who was 8th with 53 labs and St. Joseph with 23 labs for a total of 209. The next closest district was District 42 in southern Indiana with 177 labs. They also had three of the top 10 counties in their district.
State statistics for 2010 show that 61% or 821of the labs seized used the Birch Reduction method of cooking while the One Pot method was second with 37% or 493 and the Red Phosphorus method coming in at 2% with 493. At the end of last year a total of 270 children in the state were identified as being in clandestine lab homes. The total arrests for meth labs in the state were 1,212.
