If you're looking to move, chances are you suss out a neighborhood first: schools, crime rates, sex offenders nearby, and the like. If you live in Jefferson County, MO, you can add another criteria to your info gathering: whether a meth lab is located nearby.
Not limited to hardcore crack houses, the sheriff's department is listing places where it's seized any materials tied to meth production that indicate a past presence of a secret drug lab in the past two years. Real estate agents are thrilled by the new development though schools and house size still top the list of important area details. With the release of the info however, nearby homeowners might worry that the released info could wreak havoc on their own home's value.
The sheriff says, "We keep raising the bar on awareness. You either do something about it, or you stick your head in the sand." Jefferson County has one of the worst meth problems in the United States. The state of Missouri recorded 770 meth-lab incidents in the first six months of this year.
Is their criteria too broad? Should a house be listed as a meth lab just for having evidence gathered? Is privacy at stake or is this progressive crime fighting?
Comfort
Camilla Skovgaard
L'Autre Chose
Well there's more than one danger to having a meth lab close by your house. Even if it's a previous meth lab. I think it's a good idea.
1yes excellent idea. will also save the meth "scientists" a lot of money on yellow pages ads! now we can just ask the state to find our drugs for us! what's next for the nanny state of missouri?
2yes! absolutely because people buying drugs want to go exactly where cops tell them to go.
3I can see why people would be concerned about their home values though. Would you really want to buy a house near a known meth lab?
4I'm with Harts and Blue.
Sorry I've been MIA. My husband took me to, get ready to get jealous, rockin' out with Tom Petty and Steve Winwood! lol, eat your hearts out!!
5I agree. That's too bad for them too. But, I'd rather know if my kids were going to be riding their bikes by a meth lab. Or, if there was going to be a possible explosion. That kind of thing.
6OH! GS! You brat! oh, but I'm really happy for you too. Darn you though. but
7Welcome back GS! You lucky sob...
8It was abso-freakin'-lutely amazing! The heartbreaker's are a fabulous band. And when Winwood came out and did some Blind Faith stuff with petty I was jumping in my seat like a mad woman. And Petty did some traveling Wilbury's stuff too. It appeared to me he was visibly saddened doing them though. And no one can fill in for Roy Orbison or George Harrison, I don't care who they are. They were one of a kind. So, this baby has rocked out to some heavy hitters. I went to Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson while pregnant with Jude, so my kids get musical taste in utero!
9No mention of charges, trials - just listing the properties where materials are seized, with no evaluation of the quality of the materials as valid evidence?
10Since aluminum foil, measuring cups, antifreeze containers, papers, notes, duct tape and rubber gloves can all be taken as indicators of a meth lab, this idea seems to have serious potential for abuse.
OH GS! Your baby is so lucky!
11I fail to see how this isn't a great idea. Meth labs explode and are directly dangerous to all houses around them.
12I like this idea. Steph, I read the linked article and it says that "The postings list addresses where the department has seized a meth lab or found discarded materials that indicate the past presence of a clandestine drug lab in 2007 or 2008."
I would assume that they would need more than just a few items that could possibly be used in the production of meth, that these were places where there were either active investigations or evidence to point to them being used for meth lab sites.
13You'd assume that, but the potential abuse is very real.
14I'm all in favor of it. They are super dangerous and who needs one more thing to worry about. Oh and GS I'm hecka jealous.
15Steph, so you would just rather be in the dark, because something may potentially happen? That is a very different than your view on other subjects.
16lol, it was great Milos!
17The potential for abuse is great for many things. I think that, in this instance, the pros outweigh the cons.
18Tom Petty is so goodin concert. I saw him last summer with Steve Knicks!
19Er, Stevie Knicks!
20Finally I can get directions on where to buy some meth! Imposible to locate in the yellow pages.
21kastarte
It doesn't mean CURRENT meth labs, it means PRIOR meth activity.
It's usually homes that the occupants have already been arrested or moved out and it is up for sale or rent. It's a tool so you know if you're getting a house that has the contaminants still present in the walls etc.
22MILLS
It was a joke.
23"The Web site doesn't provide details about what occurred at each address. Brown said the department would try to provide additional information to members of the public with questions if it can by law."
The information doesn't tell you if there was a meth lab, or if the house is going to blow up or when the house is going to blow up - so what exactly is the purpose of this information besides saying something bad may have happened in this neighborhood?
Doesn't it implicate anyone who lived in the house in meth production - even though they may not have ever been arrested or charged? Or had anything to do with a meth lab?
24Stephley is right. It's important that the seizure of illegal contraband by police is not something that is public record.
The police must operate in secret.
25This is going to take all the guesswork out of drug dealing...
26Seeing as Meth labs, can do damage to people living next door to them, behind, or in front of them or even a block away. I feel that people have the right to know. Those chemicals and fumes can not only hurt adults and children. They are deadly and can give contact highs if they are over exposed. People not knowing that a Meth lab is near there house can be deadly, when the illness start no one knows what it is and then its pinpointed. I would rather know than not to know.
27To me, this is not different than posting where sex offenders live. Meth is an evil evil drug and anything that can be done to help in the battle is good IMO. And you are so right bellaressa, in that the effects of a meth lab can be huge on a neighborhood
28Abuse is a concern, but I have to say that I would really have liked to have known that the street we moved onto a few months ago happens to have a meth house somewhere close to our building. At least once a week there's some crazy tweaker running about on the street, screaming at the top of his lungs, in the middle of the night. And even though the neighborhood is otherwise nice, I don't always feel safe.
29*Every time I want to walk down to 7-11 or whatever, I have to check first and make sure that this one tweaker dude isn't doing his "crawl slowly across the street on hands and knees, screaming incoherent death threats" thing.
30Wow, that sucks Jude.
31It's SO annoying.
I've seen the same guy (Crawly) get arrested like 3 or 4 times. Like a hemorrhoid or a bad case of crabs, he always comes back.
32That's so sad. 3 or 4 times? What's the point? Who is bailing him out?
33Well the meth labs are the good idea but the people who are addicted to it they have an option to join a drug intervention located in Missouri only through which they can be procured and people will not have to worry about the meth labs nearby their houses.
Karen Walter
34Drug Intervention Missouri
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