Meth lab busts in Missouri up 60 percent in last 5 years

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - After a brief drop in 2006 from pseudoephedrine laws, Law enforcement have continued to seize more methemphetamine labs since 2007.

The legislation that Missouri Highway Patrol officials credit with helping lower meth lab seizures required ID and limited the amount of pseudoephedrine. But since 2007, officers have seized increasingly more meth labs in Missouri.

On Monday, police seized a portable meth lab in the form of two coke bottles from an apartment building in Kansas City. Residents had to be evacuated during the seizure.

Officials say the drop in labs in 2006 was so brief because methamphetamine manufacturers simply discovered ways to get around the new law.

Missouri Methamphetamine Laboratory Incident Seizures 2007-2011
Year - Statewide lab seizures
2007 - 1,285
2008 - 1,487
2009 - 1,774
2010 - 1,960
2011 - 2,096