Kitsap Crime and Justice

Will Meth Making Make Comeback During Economic Lull?

February 27th, 2009 by josh farley

It’s a nightmare that most of us are trying to forget: the agglomeration of dangerous and pungent meth labs sprouting around our neighborhoods.

Such labs are mostly a thing of the past (though not entirely) thanks to “precursor laws” that allows the authorities to keep tabs on how much pseudoephedrine — the key ingredient in the drug — we’re buying.

But a terrifying story out of Walla Walla today demonstrates the dangers of such speed manufacturing: Two 19-year-old women and a woman in her late 20s were killed and a man injured when meth-making chemicals ignited and exploded.

The DEA is always quit to tout its efforts at bringing down meth supply coming over our borders, as evidenced by a higher price on the street.

But we know state and county budgets across the country are being slashed due to budget shortfalls. That could affect police and criminal justice-related budgets as well. And with many companies slashing jobs, hard economic times tend to bring a spike in drug use.

We also know the governor is considering a move that would close our local drug treatment facility for low income drug addicts. That means more drug use. And if the DEA is correct — that trafficking is down — more entrepreneurial efforts to produce meth may come to fill the void.

For now, we’ll brace for such an impact.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 6:18 pm by josh farley and is filed under Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.