A warning from the Colorado Springs Police Department's Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Unit.

They said methamphetamine cooks are using propane tanks to store anhydrous ammonia. A substance used in the production of the deadly drug.

Anhydrous Ammonia is a deadly chemical. It is commonly used on farms as a source of nitrogen fertilizer and can also be used as a refrigerant. Anhydrous must be handled and stored under high pressure in specially designed units. If mishandled, it can cause severe chemical burns and even death.

Officials said the anhydrous ammonia method of producing methamphetamine is common in rural areas and in towns surrounded by farm land because for cooks, anhydrous is easier to find since it is used as a fertilizer.

Even still, they said the production method is becoming more and more popular, and it's by-products are extremely dangerous.

"It is very corrosive to tissue, to your lung tissue, to your eyes, mucus membranes and things like that, in the right doses or with too high of a dose it will kill you very quickly," an Undercover Sergeant with Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence said.

He said meth cooks store the deadly chemical inside propane tanks like the one found in your backyard.

"Mixing anhydrous ammonia with various other chemicals is just one of the ways these cooks produce or reduce ephedrine into methamphetamine," the Metro VNI Sergeant said.

He said you can easily tell when a propane tank has been used to store anhydrous because blueish-green corrosion forms around the valves.

"If you see a propane tank with a lot of heavy green corrosion on it, do not touch it, these things can be explosive, they are like bombs waiting to go off," the Metro VNI Sergeant said.

He said most tanks used by meth cooks are not returned to the distributor, but rather abandoned in houses, ditches and fields. He said that is when things become dangerous for everyone in the community.

"Just by picking it up, or shaking it, you can create enough pressure for the valve to blow out of the tank, striking you, killing you, or that tank will explode from the corrosion," the Metro VNI Sergeant said. "Call police, the fire department or hazmat and they will come take a look at it."

He said he has never heard of anyone accidentally taking home a propane tank from a dealer that was previously filled with anhydrous ammonia, but he said it could still happen.

Meth is currently the most prevalent drug in Colorado Springs

Police arrested a Lodi dentist Wednesday and were searching for her boyfriend after investigators found methamphetamine at her Fairmont Avenue dental office, Lodi police said.

Lavonne "Vonnie" Sawyer, 49, was arrested at her office after a monthlong investigation. Police want to find her boyfriend, Donald Lewis, 41.

On May 5, police visited the office, at 828 S. Fairmont Ave., because Lewis was there and had five outstanding warrants, Officer Dale Eubanks said.

When officers arrived, Lewis fled. Officers noticed liquor in the office, and staff members told investigators that Lewis would rifle through patients' medical records despite instructions not to, Eubanks said.

Following the visit last month, police contacted the state Dental Board, which opened an investigation and discovered Sawyer had dispensed about 1,000 prescriptions for medication such as Vicodin in one year. Thirty-nine of those prescriptions, investigators said, were for her boyfriend.

When investigators visited the practice, they found suspected methamphetamine hidden in a patient's medical file, Eubanks said.

Sawyer was booked on suspicion of meth possession. The Dental Board is still looking into her practice and could take further action, including revoking her license, officials said.

Lewis has outstanding warrants for charges including child abuse, battery on a spouse or cohabitant, grand theft and violating a domestic violence court order.

Methamphetamine can cause a variety of cardiovascular problems. These include rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. Hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) and convulsions occur with methamphetamine overdoses, and if not treated immediately, can result in death.

Chronic methamphetamine abuse can result in inflammation of the heart lining, and among users who inject the drug, damaged blood vessels and skin abscesses. Methamphetamine abusers also can have episodes of violent behavior, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. Heavy users also show progressive social and occupational deterioration. Psychotic symptoms can sometimes persist for months or years after use has ceased.

Acute lead poisoning is another potential risk for methamphetamine abusers. A common method of illegal methamphetamine production uses lead acetate as a reagent. Production errors may therefore result in methamphetamine contaminated with lead. There have been documented cases of acute lead poisoning in intravenous methamphetamine abusers.

Fetal exposure to methamphetamine also is a significant problem in the United States. At present, research indicates that methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy may result in prenatal complications, increased rates of premature delivery, and altered neonatal behavioral patterns, such as abnormal reflexes and extreme irritability. Methamphetamine abuse during pregnancy may be linked also to congenital deformities.

What are the immediate (short-term) effects of methamphetamine use?

As a powerful stimulant, methamphetamine, even in small doses, can increase wakefulness and physical activity and decrease appetite. A brief, intense sensation, or rush, is reported by those who smoke or inject methamphetamine. Oral ingestion or snorting produces a long-lasting high instead of a rush, which reportedly can continue for as long as half a day. Both the rush and the high are believed to result from the release of very high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine into areas of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure.

Short-term effects of methamphetamine

• Increased attention
• Decreased fatigue
• Increased activity
• Decreased appetite
• Euphoria and rush
• Increased respiration
• Hyperthermia
  

Methamphetamine has toxic effects. In animals, a single high dose of the drug has been shown to damage nerve terminals in the dopamine-containing regions of the brain. The large release of dopamine produced by methamphetamine is thought to contribute to the drug's toxic effects on nerve terminals in the brain. High doses can elevate body temperature to dangerous, sometimes lethal, levels, as well as cause convulsions.

What are the long-term effects of methamphetamine use?

Long-term methamphetamine abuse results in many damaging effects, including addiction. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use which is accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain. In addition to being addicted to methamphetamine, chronic methamphetamine abusers exhibit symptoms that can include violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. They also can display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects creeping on the skin, called "formication"). The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts.

Long-term effects of methamphetamine

• Dependence
• Addiction psychosis
• Paranoia
• Hallucinations
• Mood disturbances
• Repetitive motor activity
• Stroke
• Weight loss

With chronic use, tolerance for methamphetamine can develop. In an effort to intensify the desired effects, users may take higher doses of the drug, take it more frequently, or change their method of drug intake. In some cases, abusers forego food and sleep while indulging in a form of binging known as a "run," injecting as much as a gram of the drug every 2 to 3 hours over several days until the user runs out of the drug or is too disorganized to continue. Chronic abuse can lead to psychotic behavior, characterized by intense paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and out-of-control rages that can be coupled with extremely violent behavior.

Although there are no physical manifestations of a withdrawal syndrome when methamphetamine use is stopped, there are several symptoms that occur when a chronic user stops taking the drug. These include depression, anxiety, fatigue, paranoia, aggression, and an intense craving for the drug.

In scientific studies examining the consequences of long-term methamphetamine exposure in animals, concern has arisen over its toxic effects on the brain. Researchers have reported that as much as 50 percent of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain can be damaged after prolonged exposure to relatively low levels of methamphetamine. Researchers also have found that serotonin-containing nerve cells may be damaged even more extensively. Whether this toxicity is related to the psychosis seen in some long-term methamphetamine abusers is still an open question.