Reply #11: Very true. It is especially prevalent in rural areas [View All]

Here in MN, it's no problem to find a run-down farmhouse on an unused piece of land, set up shop, and start cooking. Usually no electicity, but you can bring in propane cookers and such to cook the meth. No one ever notices, unless a farmer or hunter takes a stroll through the woods sometime. Hell, sometimes the farmers and their children are the ones making it! You fall on tough times, you lose the crops to drought, disease, flooding, etc, and meth starts to look very tempting. I have known parents that encouraged their children to help them grow marijuana in the woods, so it wouldn't be much of a step to go to meth for them. Also, there are no police, EVER. I grew up on a farm, and the only time I EVER saw a cop on the gravel roads around our place was when we called them (another story). You have an ample supply of anhydrous ammonia from the massive ammonia tanks farmers use to fertilize their fields with. It's a meth maker's dream come true.

Last year, in my tiny hometown of Upsala (population 400), they busted a meth lab in the very center of town. Since it is such a small town, it was only ~5 blocks down from the elementary/high school. Yet, this lab worked unnoticed for at least a year in a somewhat dingy, unassuming house right along the main street of town. They closed down the street and filled it with men in protective gear clearing out the house, which was later bulldozed down. The same thing happened on a farm a couple miles from my parents farm 5 yrs ago. There have been several cases of people dying or suffering lung damage from unsuccessfully trying to steal ammonia from the tanks, and inhaling it by accident. It was reported in the newspapers here last week that 75% of all crime in MN is now related to the meth trade, and that we're spending over $2 million fitting prisoners with dentures and replacement teeth as "meth mouth" destroys theirs. I'm almost afraid to go home sometimes; I grew up thinking all the crime was in the cities, not the country. We never even locked our doors when I was a kid, but now my dad has to lock everything around the farm to prevent stealing, and the shotgun in the house isn't just for deer anymore.....