Do You Live Near a Former Meth Lab?

Where are the meth makers in Missouri? If a database available from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is right, they're mostly in Missouri, and they're heavily concentrated in the most populated areas of the state.

In North County, you can find from 10-15 former meth labs concentrated around the area.

Patch has created an interactive map showing the locations in Missouri where law enforcement officials found the makings of a meth lab: Either chemicals or other items that suggested the presence of a lab, or a dump site.

The data — ranging from Jan. 1, 2004, through Nov. 19, 2012 — was compiled by the DEA from law enforcement officials around the country. The data show 154 drug labs found in St. Louis County during that period; 13 in the city of St. Louis; 311 in St. Charles County; and a whopping 472 in Jefferson County.

Do you live near a home or apartment that was once suspected as a meth lab? Here's how to use the interactive map above.

• Click in the green part of any county to see details about how many labs were found in that county.
• Click a red dot to get the specific address of a suspected meth lab or dump site.
• Use the + and - tool at the left side of the map to zoom in or out.
• Use the direction circle in the upper left to move around the map.

A list by real estate website HomeFacts ranked Missouri No. 1 with the most suspected labs or dump sites, at 2,779. That far outpaced the No. 2 state, Tennessee, with 1,580. 

CNN Money recently did a feature about the National Clandestine Laboratory Register and the homes people have unwittingly bought, only to discover they required clean-up from the remains of meth lab materials. The article quoted Craig Lowther, a Springfield, MO, real estate attorney who had to spend $2,000 cleaning up an apartment building he owned after discovering that a tenant had been using an apartment to cook meth.

The map you see here was inspired by a similar map posted by Patch news partner FOX2. In its article, Fox2Now said the list of addresses plotted above may include homes that were torn down and replaced. "In other cases," FOX2 wrote, "homeowners may have paid for complete meth remediation."

The DEA notes this disclaimer about the meth lab data on its website: "The department has not verified the entry and does not guarantee its accuracy. Members of the public must verify the accuracy of all entries by, for example, contacting local law enforcement and local health departments. To report erroneous information found in the database, please contact DEA at NCLR@usdoj.gov."