Bradley Allen Rowland and another chemistry professor at Henderson State University were charged in connection with the production of methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia, the Clark County Sheriff's Department said.Clark County Sheriff's Office/The New York Times News Service
It sounds like something from the award-winning former AMC series Breaking Bad: The authorities charged two chemistry professors in Arkansas on Friday in connection with the production of methamphetamine.
The instructors, Terry Bateman, 45, and Bradley Rowland, 40, were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department said. Meth is a highly addictive drug that can be manufactured illegally with chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prof. Bateman and Prof. Rowland are associate professors of chemistry at Henderson State University, a liberal arts school of about 3,500 students in Arkadelphia, about 70 miles southwest of Little Rock.
The professors went on administrative leave as of Oct. 11, Tina V. Hall, a university associate vice-president of marketing and communications, said on Sunday.
The Clark County sheriffs office says 45-year-old Dr. Terry David Bateman, pictured, and 40-year-old Bradley Allen Rowland were arrested Friday, Nov. 15. 2019.The Associated Press
Ms. Hall said that the school’s Reynolds Science Center had been closed on Oct. 8 because of “a report of an undetermined chemical odour.” Testing revealed an elevated presence of benzyl chloride in a lab, she said.
Benzyl chloride is used to produce certain dyes and pharmaceutical products, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Short-term effects from inhaling it include irritation of the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract.
“Benzyl chloride is an inexpensive and versatile chemical that is used to make many other useful drugs and molecules,” Eric Simanek, a professor of chemistry at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said on Sunday.
Stephen Madison, who is on the chemistry faculty at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., said that benzyl chloride could be used to help make methamphetamine.
Henderson State University’s on-call environmental services company conducted remediation work in the building, which reopened on Oct. 29, Hall said.
The arrests called to mind the wildly popular Breaking Bad series, which ran from 2008 to 2015. The drama followed Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher played by Bryan Cranston who becomes an Albuquerque, N.M., drug lord when he can’t afford his cancer treatments.
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