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WILKESBORO -- The number of methamphetamine labs being found in Northwest North Carolina is on the rise again.

The discovery of clandestine meth labs had dropped markedly after a 2006 law required that certain cold medicines -- ones that can be used in making meth -- be placed behind pharmacy counters so they aren't as easily accessible. But the numbers are rising again as a simpler "one pot" method of producing methamphetamine spreads.

Wilkes County saw a spike to 19 meth labs in 2011, the fourth most of any county in the state, according to statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation. That's up from the seven labs busted in 2010. Officials found just two labs in 2009, one in 2008 and none in 2007.

Watauga County had 22 clandestine meth labs in 2011, the second most of any county in the state. Watauga had 20 labs found in 2010, but just three in 2009, five in 2008 and three in 2007.

Those local trends mirror a statewide trend that saw clandestine labs drop in 2006, but start climbing again in recent years.

There were 328 clandestine labs discovered in North Carolina in 2005, but that number dropped to 197 in 2006, according to the SBI. The numbers started climbing again and rose last year to 344 labs, up more than 100 over 2010.

In January 2006, a state law went into effect that limited purchases of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine to no more than two packages at a time and no more than three packages within 30 days. Buyers have to show a photo ID and sign a log. The law requires that pills containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine be behind a pharmacy counter.

Pseudoephedrine is just slightly different from meth in chemical composition, and a meth cook can transform cold medicine into meth. Users snort, inject or smoke the meth, which can produce a rush or sense of euphoria in the short term. It can also lead to violent and psychotic behavior, and quickly rots users' teeth.

An increasingly common method of producing meth has arrived in North Carolina, and state officials say it accounts for the rising numbers of labs found. It what is known as "one pot" or "shake-and-bake" labs, the chemicals are often mixed in a two-liter plastic soda bottle. The yield is smaller but requires just a few packets of cold tablets and takes less than an hour. The process is dangerous -- the bottle can explode -- and it leaves a harmful brown residue inside the bottle.

Sometimes people buy the ingredients, make the meth while driving around and then toss the bottle out the window.

Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman said the majority of the meth labs his officers are finding now are shake-and-bake labs.

"It's a lot easier (to make)," he said. "(But) the volatility is still there in terms of danger and the chemicals they're using. The problem is they're throwing them on the side of the road. People will stop and pick them up."

Last fall, volunteers cleaning up the New River found the remains of a shake-and-bake meth lab and turned it in to the Sheriff's Office, he said.

In addition, the fumes created by making meth are hazardous. There can also be damage to the environment where the chemicals are dumped.

Wilkes County Sheriff Chris Shew said that even in the years when there were few meth labs busted in Wilkes County, people were using meth. Rather than making it, they were buying meth that came up from Mexico via Atlanta. It was expensive.

"Now they're able to get the precursors and make it themselves," he said.

The shake-and-bake labs typically yield three or four grams of meth.

"That's a small-scale thing and they're constantly making it and making it," Shew said. "They don't get that much quantity, so they keep accumulating trash and are constantly getting people to go to drugstores to get quantities (of cold medicine)."

Law-enforcement officers refer to the people who drive from store to store, often across state lines, as "smurfers."

Most of the smurfers arrested in Watauga County are from Tennessee, Hagaman said, but counterparts in Tennessee tell him that most of their smurfers are from North Carolina.

"They'll recruit people to go in and buy the limit," Hagaman said. "With the new law which came into effect in January, hopefully we'll see a decline in that because it'll track it from state to state."

The new law has North Carolina joining an electronic tracking system that will track pseudoephedrine purchases by people who shop at multiple stores and across state lines.

Pharmacies had been required to keep logs of people who bought the precursor drugs under the system in place since 2006. Now those logs will be shared electronically across the National Precursor Log Exchange, and can be accessed by law-enforcement officers in real time. The system will also let store operators know if a buyer has reached the legal limit.

The National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, a nonprofit organization that helps law enforcement, health-care professionals and drug companies in fighting drug abuse, provides NPLEx. The service is paid for by the manufacturers of the medicines. Now that North Carolina is using it, there are 17 states in the system. South Carolina and Tennessee are using it, but Virginia is not.

Attorney General Roy Cooper said the idea is to use technology to stop meth makers from going store to store or across state lines to evade detection.

"We're making it more difficult for criminals to get the ingredients they need to make meth, and easier for law enforcement to find them and shut down their dangerous labs," he said in a statement.

The SBI is also developing new sites for disposal of the hazardous waste associated with meth labs.