A meth house not only subjects the meth cooks and occupants of a meth house to poisonous gases, but is a blight on the neighborhood that the house is in. Often, meth houses will show “telltale” signs of meth production from the outside. Some of these are:
-Unusual Odors: Cooking meth produces powerful, smelly odors, and houses can smell like cat urine or rotten eggs;
-Covered Windows: Meth cookers will often try to hide what they are doing by covering the windows to prevent others from looking in;
-Weird Ventilation: Meth makers will try and ventilate the smells and fumes outside. They might do this by opening the window on a cold day, or might set up fans in the windows and other unusual ventilation systems;
-Security Measures: Those who make meth know that what they are doing is illegal. So look for them to set up elaborate security measures, such as large “Keep Out” signs, guard dogs, video cameras and even baby monitors outside the house;
-Dead Yards: Meth cooks might dump their toxic substances outside, on the lawn, creating dead spots on the grass or shubbery;
-Excessive and Unusual Trash: Meth cooks will use a variety of products to make meth. So look for this kind of trash: cold tablet boxes, lithium battery packaging, used coffee filters, empty containers of antifreeze, ether, starting fluid, Freon, drain cleaner, paint thinner, acetone, plastic soda bottles with holes near the top, rubber hoses, rubber gloves and respiratory masks;
-Smoking Outside: Because the meth cooking produces flammable gases, the meth cooks will not want to light a smoke inside, but will instead go outside frequently to smoke;
-Frequent Visitors: meth cooks have friends that come to visit and/or buy meth or drop off supplies, especially at night.
If you suspect that a house or outbuilding might be used to manufacture meth, you should contact your local police department and report your suspicions. You don’t ever want to ever confront the people that are cooking the meth. Let law enforcement take care of that.
Ron Kramer is a Utah chemical poisoning lawyer with offices in Bountiful, Draper and Provo, Utah.
Source: http://ag.state.nv.us/meth/what/house.htm