Georgetown Meth Lab

The big news in higher education this morning was the discovery of a meth lab in a sketchy Montana basement Georgetown University freshman dormitory. According to the Washington Post, students were roused from their beds at 6 am after police discovered a room full of chemicals for making methamphetamines on the top floor of their dormitory. The dormitory was subsequently evacuated, and three male students were taken into custody.

And we thought Cornell’s 2009 busted “drug operation” was a big deal. Like all other schools, prestigious universities obviously have reputations for binge drinking and recreational drug use, but a makeshift meth lab is taking this to a new level. One Georgetown senior had this to say about the reaction on campus:

The mood on campus is very weird. People are laughing because, I mean, a meth lab, seriously? Isn’t our school supposed to be a beacon of preppy culture, not some outpost of South Dakota hicks. On the other hand, students are a little bit freaked out. Meth labs have a tendency to explode, and he was basing his “business operation” in a freshman dorm. The police averted a possible tragedy.

But the most disturbing part of this story is just how narrowly tragedy was avoided. Speaking on a condition of anonymity, another Georgetown student has informed the Cornell Review that when university officials initially attempted to evacuate the dormitory this morning, not a single fire alarm was functioning. After this emergency system failure, police and university officials proceeded to go door to door to evacuate the dorm. We will update this post as more information becomes available.

Update: The Hoya is now reporting that the chemicals were used for DMT, a hallucinogenic drug, not methamphetamines.