A Cherokee Nation Environmental Programs employee tests a small area of a wall
for methamphetamine in a home. (Courtesy photo)
Cherokee Nation Mutual Help home tests positive for meth


By Christina Good Voice
Staff Writer

WAGONER, Okla. – A modest brick home with blue trim sits in a nice neighborhood. A passerby could walk by and never guess that methamphetamine was cooked in the home. That was the case at a Cherokee Nation Housing Services Mutual Help home located at 602 N.E. Ninth St., where Housing Services officials said a neighbor reported that meth had been cooked there. 

The home’s resident, CN citizen James D. McDaris, died in January 2008, Gary Cooper, Housing Services construction supervisor, said. He added that McDaris cooked meth in the home, but could not confirm whether McDaris died of meth-related causes. 

Because the homes’ outside appearance looked nice, Housing Services officials and the tribe’s Environmental Programs staff said they were surprised that meth was cooked there. 

“This home was a little bit of a shocker,” Environmental Programs Director Wayne Isaacs said. “It didn’t have too many signs of a meth lab. It didn’t have any odors. Some meth cooks are good about filtering out the odors.”

Cooper said although Housing Services officials didn’t suspect anything, they asked Environmental Programs to test it for safety reasons. Isaacs’ team tested the home twice to ensure laboratory results of the first positive test were correct.

“We actually went back and did some retesting to make sure the lab wasn’t wrong, making sure it wasn’t an error on their part, and sure enough it was high levels,” Isaacs said. 

When testing, any meth residue higher than a level of .1 micrograms per 100 square centimeters is called a determined action level and is considered an environmental problem. 

The team places a template on the wall that has a small opening, and it uses a wipe with methanol on it and wipes the wall different directions. It sends the test to a lab which determines how much meth residue is present. 



“We’ve been doing this for six or seven years now, and this is the worse one we’ve ever had,” Isaacs said.

He said the Wagoner home tested for levels as high as 17, which is 170 times the determined action level. With a test reading that high, Environmental Programs staff recommended gutting the home because a typical cleaning wouldn’t remove the potential danger and health hazards the home now poses. 

“This is the first one (home) we’ve recommended be completely gutted,” Isaacs said. “In the past the levels have been small enough that they could be just cleaned up. Follow the proper procedures and clean it up. But this one we actually recommended that they just gut everything down to the studs.”

Isaacs said meth fumes can penetrate homes, especially ceilings because the material rises up as it’s cooked. But humidity can cause the fumes and toxins to leach back out and cause sickness in people who breathe them. 

The reading of 17 was from a vent in the home, which turned a deep red color with rust. 

“What meth does, when you cook it it’s like cooking a pot of stew or something,” Isaacs said. “It vaporizes in the air, volatizes in the air and it can penetrate into sheetrock. Because it’s acidic in nature it has a reaction with metals and has that heavy rusting effect.”

Cooper said the Housing Services group hasn’t decided what to do with the home yet and was considering just bulldozing it and selling the lot.

Reach Staff Writer Christina Good Voice at (918) 207-3825 or christina-goodvoice@cherokee.org



Any single activity may or may not be sole proof that drug dealing or methamphetamine manufacturing is occurring. However, a combination of the following may be a reason for concern.

•	Frequent visitors at all times of the day or night
•	Activity at the house is usually at odd hours or late at night
•	Occupants are unfriendly, appear secretive about activities
•	Occupants watch cars suspiciously when they pass by
•	Occupants display a paranoid or odd behavior
•	Extensive security at the home or signs that indicate ‘Private Property’ or ‘Beware of Dog’ signs, fences, large shrubs, bushes and trees
•	Windows blackened or curtains always drawn
•	Occupants go outside the house to smoke cigarettes
•	Chemical odors coming from the house, garbage or detached buildings
•	Garbage contains numerous bottles, containers
•	Coffee filters, bed sheets or other material stained from filtering red phosphorous or other chemicals
•	Occupant sets his garbage for pick up in another neighbor’s collection area
•	Evidence of chemical waste or waste dumping