The cost of tough meth laws

As is true throughout the country, Tennessee has seen a boom in meth labs and its consequent harmful effects including a rise in burn victims from explosions while processing the drug. Deputy drug czar, Joseph Keefe attended a drug conference in Nashville on the subject recently and praised local authorities "for approaching the drug problem with tougher criminal laws, public education and addiction treatment."

Putting aside the fact that the ONDCP's idea of public education and treatment is a joke, the tougher criminal laws is exactly why the country is now endangered by these labs for the "new" meth. As noted here before, 30 years ago meth was a popular drug on college campuses and yet we had no explosions or toxic waste entering the ecosphere. Why? Because the precusor elements of its manufacture were legally obtainable ingredients and thus pure and safe. When they toughened the laws on the precusors, the meth makers were forced to improvise with less reliable ingredients and hence you now have labs that are the equivalent of Molotov cocktails, exuding toxic fumes and just waiting to explode.

That people are willing to expose their children to these dangers underlines the hold this drug has on its users. Clearly tougher laws didn't diminish the demand or there wouldn't be thousands of these labs hidden in every corner of the US. The only sensible method for eliminating this dangerous practice is to legalize the stuff and let them have it for free. At least then the health effects, (which are significant even outside of the burn victims) could be monitored and perhaps forestalled. As doctors at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center note, most meth patients don't have health insurance. Thus you the taxpayer, pay at both sides of this problem. First for the enhanced costs of enforcement of failed laws and then for the health consequences of an unregulated market. Think about it.