Posted on 08/16/2013 10:07:25 AM PDT by mgist
Meth-related cleanup and law enforcement cost the state of Kentucky about $30 million in 2009, the latest year for which the state police have produced an estimate. That doesn't include the cost of crimes addicts commit to support their habit, of putting out meth fires, of decontaminating meth homes, of responding to domestic-abuse calls or placing neglected, abused, or injured kids in foster care. Dr. Glen Franklin, who oversees the burn unit at the University of Louisville Hospital, says his unit alone sees 15 to 20 meth lab burn patients each year, up from two or three a decade ago. They are some of his most difficult cases, often involving both thermal and chemical burns to the face and upper body from a bottle that burst into flames.
According to a study coauthored by Franklin in 2005, it costs an average of nearly $230,000 to treat a meth lab victim—three times more than other burn patients—and that cost is most often borne by taxpayers. Meth use as a whole, according to a 2009 RAND Corporation study, costs the nation anywhere between $16 billion and $48 billion each year. (snip) CHPA's Kentucky filings of 2010 and 2011 tax returns show more than $1 million worth of payments to Winning Connections, a robocall company that typically represents Democratic politicians and liberal causes such as the Sierra Club's campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Belcher's bill never came up for a vote. Over the ensuing months, the number of meth labs found in Kentucky would grow by 45 percent, surpassing 1,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...
Last time I drove through Kentucky there was a poster hanging at every rest stop and wayside.
“If you see these five things in your neighbor’s trash, he is running a meth lab. Call 1-800-XXX-XXXX and report it.”
For those who believe drugs are a victimless crime, I refer them to meth.
A drug that really is as bad as the government says “drugs” are. Destroys sellers, users, families, neighborhoods and communities.
Which is not to say that our policies for opposing its use are the best they could be.
So make it a prescription drug and buy off the pseudoephedrine manufacturers with cash and tax breaks. It would be cheaper in the long run and is in keeping with our government’s predilection to corruption and special deals.
They took phenylpropanolamine completely off the market so that clanlabs couldn’t make U4EA (4-methylaminorex), and most people these days have never even heard of U4EA or 4-methylaminorex. Or miss phenylpropanolamine as a prescription or OTC drug.
“Would you really want to live in a world without Coca-Cola?”
A drug that turns you into Helen Thomas if you’re female
and Henry Waxman if you’re male.
Making pseudophedrine perscription will not slow it down. Only make it more expensive for those that need it. Oxycodone has always been prescription and those folks in Kentucky have been consuming it like coffee. It does’nt even slow it down.
I’ve notice one thing about your pics. Meth makes your hair grow.
Type II diabetes necessitates such a lifestyle, unless you want to commit suicide by high fructose corn syrup.
Who makes all those little zip-loc baggies and those little plastic tubes with different color stoppers?
I don’t recall the drug carnage being anywhere nearly as bad as it is today back in the days when doctors were still able to prescribe speed. Yep, we need more laws!
What are the face blotches all about?
What? Mother Jones has been all for legalization of marijuana, but they are upset that drug companies want to keep psuedoephedrine controlled with ID behind the counter?
Hypocrites.
All Meth users suffer from what they call “Crank Bugs”. Meth is manufactured with chemicals that are toxic to the human body, and once the drug is taken the chemicals remain. The body’s natural reaction is to try and eliminate the toxins. Users itch and scratch which causes the open sores.
http://www.nmtf.us/methamphetamine/methamphetamine.htm
Doctors stopped prescribing speed because it was too dangerous. Like they don’t prescribe heroin, though it has quite legitimate medical uses.
Except for the surfer dude second row from the bottom.
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