Oneida (WSYR-TV) -- Police have busted three methamphetamine labs in the past two months. The latest bust happened Saturday at 406 Lenox Drive, where police say they seized $45,000 worth of the drug.
Police say the increase in meth making has little to do with selling it; it's more about feeding an addiction.
Busts have happened on Lenox Drive, Palmer Drive and a bust earlier this month took place at a home in nearby Rome, where police say children were living.
"Unfortunately, what happens is one person learns how to make it, they teach somebody else and it just kind of mushrooms from there," said Oneida's Police Chief, David Meeker.
Two separate busts this summer happened within a few homes of each other on Lenox Avenue. Efforts have been made to curb meth making statewide, but cookers are finding ways around it, using greater numbers.
Meth-making is dangerous and the ingredients can be volatile, a scary thought for neighbors.
Oneida resident Paul Guerrant said, "It can take a whole block out if it was to explode because of the chemicals. You’re talking about innocent lives taken for no reason."
And those lives could be the lives of little ones, which worries Kirstin Cast, "There's like little kids that live on this street and the little kids don't need to be around it," she said.
Chief Meeker says they're working to take the drug off city streets.
Some of the busts were made thanks to help from neighbors who witnessed unusual activity and called police. Chief Meeker encourages folks to keep their eyes open and report anything suspicious in their neighborhood.
Police have arrested five people in connection with Saturday's bust on Lenox Avenue.
