The article you linked does not exaggerate. Illicit "meth labs" have been a growing problem in my area.
About a year ago Oklahoma restricted the sale of the pseudoephrine cold tablets (Sudafed and generics) that are used to make meth, and Kansas followed in the current legislature. You still can buy them without a prescription, but pharmacies are not allowed to display them where customers can handle them, and you have to show identification and sign for them. Quantities that can be purchased at one time are limited, and both states have made claims that the records will be used to track anyone who attempts to get them from more than one source. (Sales of fake IDs should boom.)
Oklahoma claims a significant drop in meth lab busts since their law went into effect, while Kansas saw a rapid increase in "Okies" buying the pills here. The Kansas law hasn't been in effect long enough to tell how much it will accomplish here, but it may be the only useful thing the Kansas Legislature accomplished this term.
Two of the toxic chemicals often used in meth manufacture are anhydrous ammonia, which can be fairly easily stolen from agricultural users, and metallic lithium. The lithium literally explodes if exposed to air, so the perverts scrape it out of batteries submerged in kerosine. Anhydrous ammonia can be deadly, and can "linger" even in open areas for very long times if spilled or discarded inappropriately. Concentrated acids, mainly nitric and sulphuric, are often used, Any of these individually can be deadly, especially if you don't know they're present. A couple of the commonly used reactions are strongly exothermic, and subject to "runaway reaction" that can literally blow the walls out of a building.
While some labs are set up in remote areas and run for longer times, most meth labs move frequently. A couple in my area have been found where the operators rented hotel/motel rooms for as short a time as 3 or 4 days, ran their lab, and left all the junk/contamination behind in the rooms.
There is no "honor among thieves" in this activity. It's easier to steal it from another "producer" than it is to make it, and almost as safe; so the operators usually are heavily armed and frequently booby-trap the premises. "Set-guns," trip-wire devices, and hidden explosives are fairly often found, and some or all of the "traps" are often left behind when the operators leave a lab site.
The "meth high" is a lot like a "crack" cocaine high, and can induce the same kinds of violent, irrational, and destructive behaviours. (By some accounts, meth at high illicite dosages may be even more addictive than cocaine.) A "local boy" recently killed a County Sheriff, a "family friend," pretty close to here when the sheriff called to check out why he hadn't reported to his parole officer for a relatively minor past offense. The "kid" was high on meth and running a lab to make more, and shot his "friend," the sheriff.
Gang participation in the "business" is a certainty, but its actual extent isn't clearly known, (so far as I know). There have been reports of gangs using meth "freebies" to recruit juveniles to their associated "kid gangs." Usage to recruit, retain, and control prostitutes is pretty well documented.