Lee County deputies discovered a meth lab in a North Fort Myers homeless camp.
The fumes from the "shake and bake" meth operation were so strong, one deputy had to be treated on scene by EMS.
The homeless camp is located off Bayshore Road near Washington Road in North Fort Myers. It's near a neighborhood where children were seen outside playing football.
Deputies said Elizabeth Justice is behind the meth lab. While searching her tent and the areas surrounding it, they found 183.4 grams of liquid meth.
"That's a tremendous amount. That's not for personal consumption," Brandon Short, an addiction psychiatrist at Nextep in Fort Myers, said.
Short said this is a growing trend.
"We have seen an increase in some of the meth labs that have been in the woods, especially with the people who are making it to try to increase their profits. Those are the biggest drugs we see abused in the homeless camps," Short said.
"I got hooked on meth when I was 17," AJ reliford, now 22, said.
He's being treated at Nextep, but said he'd get the hook up at meth labs like Justice's when he lived in the woods.
"All the time. A new lab, or a new place of cooking, new kitchen," Reliford said. "That's the last place you would expect somebody to bust you at."
Short said meth is so popular at homeless camp sites because the materials to make it are easy for the homeless to come by.
"A lot of people have propane tanks, and also things that are cheap: cotton, any sort of glass cylinder you can find," Short said.
Deputies found many of those items when searching Justice's tent.
Short said aside from being a danger to kids and teens, the meth labs are also concerning to neighborhoods nearby.
"Possibly catching a small area on fire, which could produce a large forest fire, putting communities at risk. It's certainly a danger that should be looked into," Short said.
Justice is expected to appear in court on January 17th.
