Mike Alford, or “Alf,” as he’s better known, has been on the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force since the late 1990s.
He said he began to focus more on narcotics in 1997, which coincided with the sudden rise of methamphetamine labs in the region.
This is the first of two stories focused on the current status of methamphetamine and stimulant use disorder treatment in Missouri.
“Unfortunately, we got really good at taking apart meth labs,” Alford said. “Somebody asked me one time how many meth labs I either dismantled or was a part of, and it would be thousands because, unfortunately around that time – ‘95 to 2000 and even a little bit further past that, in the early 2000s – we were considered the meth capital of the world just by sheer amount of meth labs that we had. We seized more meth labs than anybody in the world.”
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, 2,927 meth labs were seized in 2004, and it wasn’t uncommon for about 1,500 labs or more to be seized each year between 2004 and 2013.
Alford said these labs ranged from more professionalized labs that followed a chemical process called a birch reduction to more hazardous and volatile methods, which were often referred to a “one-pot” or “shake-and-bake” meth labs — and essentially could take place within any closed container, including two-liter bottles.
“Meth labs were scary, at least at first, they were always scary, but we knew as long as we didn't mix certain things together, then we'd be okay,” Alford said. “But if those two got mixed accidentally, it was going to be an explosion or a chemical burn.”
Alf said these “mom-and-pop” meth labs were dangerous and volatile because people were “cooking” or making meth in their homes and cars, using whatever chemicals they could get their hands on.
Steven Hofer is the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Agent in Charge for the St. Louis division, which oversees Kansas, Missouri and Southern Illinois.
He said that starting in the 2000s, restrictions were passed on many of the chemicals and medications that could be used to make meth. This included pseudoephedrine, a medication designed to reduce nasal congestion.
Hofer said this led to a massive reduction in the number of meth labs being seized in the state, falling to just 50 labs in 2018. And it became harder for Missourians to access the drug — until the Mexican cartels got involved.
“They really sunk their teeth in and took over the market,” Hofer said. “And they utilized super labs and were able to lower the price of methamphetamine and increase its purity.
Hofer said in the era of small, Missouri-based meth labs, it wasn’t unusual for meth to be about 50% pure and for an eight-ball of meth — that’s 3.5 grams — to cost hundreds of dollars.
Now, the product on the street is usually 95% pure or higher and that same eight-ball costs just $40.
Both Hofer and Mike Alford in southeast Missouri agree that this purity and affordability has fundamentally changed the way Missourians interact with meth — and changed who’s using the drug.
Mike Alford in Cape Girardeau said the stereotype in the 90s and 2000s was that meth users were largely white people who lived in rural areas.
They were pictured as dirty, gaunt and with poor oral health — but a lot of that, Alford noted, were the side effects of the unsafe, corrosive and caustic chemicals used in the production process
Now, due to that increased purity or “cleanliness” of the drug, Alford said it can be harder to identify someone as a “meth user” because the drug more readily crosses racial, socioeconomic and geographic barriers.
“The majority of people are going to go through life and not realize how big of a problem it is,” Alford said. “They're not going to realize their neighbor smokes meth on a daily basis … But the reality is, it is out there and it's in every community.”
Alford stressed that methamphetamine has not left the state — has never left the state. In fact, he said, while meth is no longer manufactured in Missouri, he believes the drug may be more present than ever.
The day before I interviewed Alford at the Cape Girardeau Police Department, they arrested a local dealer with two pounds of meth, and as his former partner and current Cape Girardeau Officer Bobby Newton noted, “that didn't even make headlines.”
The Southern Regional Drug Data Research Center tracks drug and opioid data across 17 states. In 2024, they reported 12,310 forensic drug chemistry reports in Missouri positive for phenethylamines (amphetamines), a family of compounds that include meth. That was three times as many reports as of the opioid, fentanyl.
Alford said he considers methamphetamine to be the number two drug problem in their region — the first being fentanyl, which can lead to fatal overdoses in infinitesimal amounts.
But Alford said it's worrisome that these two drugs are more often being found together — with methamphetamine being “cut,” or mixed, with the potent opioid.
“We've had it [fentanyl] mixed with pretty much everything. One officer found it mixed with marijuana. We often find it mixed with meth,” Alford said. “And a lot of times people don't know that, and they're using meth, but they're getting fentanyl too, and they're not ready for that.”
He said often meth users won't have naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, on hand.
Alf said, unfortunately, he doesn’t think meth will ever be completely driven out of Missouri, which means those with substance use disorders will continue to need help, such as drug courts and treatment options.
“I'm all for any type of treatment programs that are out there and for people to use because, again, if we can get that one person off of it — that's a better person. That's a better world, as opposed to keeping the same people on the same stuff,” Alford said. “We don't think they're bad people… they just have an addiction, you know? It's no different than any other addiction.”
In our second piece looking at the status of meth in Missouri in 2026, we’ll take a look at the limited treatment options that exist for Missourians with methamphetamine and stimulant use disorders.
