by Jason Morris

I was recently interviewed by a TV station in Cleveland regarding background checks and national security:

(Video)

by Rob Thomson

As illegal drug sellers and users continue to threaten quality of life in communities across the country, several states are exploring a proactive response to a particular drug that is proliferating without regard to gender, race, or social status, and even poses a threat to non-users: methamphetamine.  Meth is cheap, addictive, and can be made with household ingredients, hence its popularity at the community level.  As a result, meth labs have been springing up across the country in homes and residential neighborhoods, allowing drug producers and sellers to avoid the traditional risks involved in having to import illegal drugs from out of state or country.

Aside from the public nuisance created by drug sellers and users, the danger to non-users results from meth being manufactured in people’s homes and communities.  The production process results in toxic waste that is typically dumped in trash cans, dumpsters, in the middle of streets and highways, and anywhere else without regard to whom or what might encounter it.  Anyone including yourself, your neighbors, pets, wildlife, bystanders, public employees, and others can be exposed.

As highlighted in the 8/23 USA Today, there is a movement at the state level to recognize this trend as a threat to entire communities, in the same way that sex offenders have been cataloged and made accessible to communities across the country in recent years.  Despite challenges by the ACLU against making statewide sex offender registries openly available to the general public, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of states’ rights to publicize this information, ruling that sex offenders posed a unique threat to communities.  Expect a similar debate about registries that will publicize names and other information on individuals that manufacture and sell methamphetamine.