The Legislature finds and declares that there has been a recent and rapid expansion in clandestine laboratories illegally producing a variety of controlled substances. These are increasingly sophisticated operations, frequently located in rural areas or working across jurisdictional lines, which pose substantial dangers to the general public from fire, explosion, and the toxic chemicals involved. The controlled substances these laboratories produce, such as analogs of fentanyl, phencyclidine, and methamphetamine, are extremely difficult to detect and analyze and have caused numerous deaths and serious injuries to those who use them.

The Legislature further finds and declares that, given the number and nature of clandestine laboratories, local law enforcement officials in most jurisdictions lack the training, specialized equipment, and resources to adequately enforce existing law. As a result, the public is increasingly endangered by the laboratories themselves while the controlled substances they produce pose a grave danger to those who use them.

It is the intent of the Legislature in establishing the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Program to provide increased funding for special training, equipment, personnel, and financial assistance to state and local law enforcement officials targeted on the investigation and prosecution of clandestine laboratories. The program shall also increase public awareness of the problems posed by clandestine laboratories and the products they produce.

(Added by Stats. 1986, Ch. 1029, Sec. 1.)