August, 1993 – Police raided a meth lab in Missouri.  The two cooks fled to Lincoln County, Tennessee, where one had relatives, and began cooking meth.  During the next 11 months, they manufactured at least 13 pounds of meth and charged a fee to teach others to cook.

Later that year, a Tennessee resident traveled from Grundy County to California and recruited an expert cook to return with him to Tennessee.  Over the next several years, the cook and his associates, operating mostly in Grundy County, produced many pounds of meth.

Also in 1993, another Tennessee resident moved from Monteagle Mountain in Franklin County to California.  There, he arranged for a friend in Tennessee to send ephedrine to California, which was manufactured into meth and returned to Tennessee.  In early 1996 in California, the Tennessee man met two cooks and recruited them to return to Tennessee with him to begin manufacturing meth.  Throughout 1996 and 1997, they produced meth in Franklin and Marion Counties and taught many others how to cook.

Late 1995 – Federal agents recognized the emerging clandestine meth lab trends in southeast Tennessee.  The meth cooks noted above, who had moved to Tennessee from Missouri in 1993, and their associates, were indicted in March 1996.

From 1993 to 1997, clandestine labs in Tennessee were primarily a rural issue, concentrated on the Cumberland Plateau, particularly in remote areas of Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie and Warren Counties. 

1999 – There were 143 meth lab incidents in Tennessee (lab raids and discovery of lab dumps).  Chattanooga and contiguous counties of Tennessee and Georgia began to experience a rapidly-growing number of labs.

2000 – There were 249 meth lab incidents in Tennessee.

2001 – There were 495 meth lab incidents in Tennessee.

2002 – There were 608 meth lab incidents in Tennessee.

2003 – There were 953 meth lab incidents in Tennessee.  By now, labs were becoming common in residential neighborhoods, motels & businesses.

2004 – There were 1,327 meth lab incidents in Tennessee, which was 75% of clandestine meth lab activity in the southeastern U.S.  April 7, Governor Bredesen established the Meth Task Force, which issued its final report on September 2.

2005 – Tennessee placed restrictions on the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine.  During May, the first month in which the law fully took effect, there was a 39% decrease in meth lab interdictions compared to May 2004.  The comparative decrease for June was 59%.  For the period of May through December, the decrease was 45%. Also in 2005, Tennessee created the nation's first registry of properties where meth labs have been discovered. In addition, Tennessee became the first state to create a registry of convicted meth cooks.

2006 – Tennessee achieved another significant decrease in clandestine methamphetamine lab seizures with 651 seizures, 39% fewer than in 2005, and a 58.24% reduction in seizures since Meth Free Tennessee went into effect.

2007 – There were 583 lab seizures, making this the third consecutive year of reductions in reported meth labs in the state.