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The Missouri Highway Patrol says the number of meth labs busted in the "Show-Me" state is up 53 percent since 2007.

In  2010 alone, the highway patrol says drug agents and police officers took down one thousand nine hundred and sixty labs.

Marion County Missouri Sheriff Jimmy Shinn thinks the increase is due to the way meth is now being made.

It used to take a lot of materials, time and space to make meth.

Cooks used glass beakers, coleman fuel and large amounts of anhydrous ammonia.

Shinn says a newer shake and bake method is contributing to the increase in the number of labs.

"What we're seeing is smaller labs and which they're going and buying one or two boxes of pills and doing what is called a shake and bake method out here. It's the reason for the spike in the numbers," said Jimmy Shinn, with the Marion County Sheriff's Department.

Shinn also says drug dealers have figured out how to circumvent police logs used at pharmacies.

They are using other people to go into drug stores and buy one or two packages of cold medicine at a time.