Meth Houses

A kid and meth
(Photo by Lopolo/Shutterstock.com)

One important point to make here is that we aren’t wanting to villainize anyone suffering from addiction. Yet, the producers of these murderous drugs deserve very little consideration. The public needs to be aware of homes possibly contaminated by meth.

Another recent and terrible example of a child getting exposed to the dangerous poison called meth happened in a small rural town in Rogers County, Oklahoma. In this state that is plagued by the meth crisis, a 2-year-old baby tested positive for methamphetamine. It’s safe to assume that the baby’s living environment was covered in meth which was, therefore, getting into his skin and lungs. Smoking it or cooking it in the apartment isn’t clear and I’m not sure that it matters. considering that the child got exposed.

My question is what unsuspecting family is going to rent that meth-coated apartment?

Regardless of the source, people who are exposed to meth pollution report speediness, loss of appetite, spaciness, an inability to concentrate, itchy skin, dry eyes, irritability, paranoia, colds, breathing difficulty, sinus problems, headaches, nervousness, anxiety, acne, and confusion. In the more extreme cases of meth pollution, convulsions and even the death of pets occur. Homes contaminated by meth are often considered “sick homes,” with unsuspecting parents finding that their children come down with unexplained illnesses without ever knowing of the invisible poison remaining inside their family home.

Methamphetamine is a crystal that vaporizes when heated, as in smoking. The residual vapor clings to surfaces and re-forms into crystals. People who come in contact with these surfaces can absorb the meth through their skin or can ingest it by touching contaminated surfaces then touching their mouth, nose or eyes. Babies are especially vulnerable. They live in a world where they crawl on all fours and everything is sampled by tasting. It takes only small amounts of meth to affect a baby.

Although it is still an FDA approved drug and prescribed for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and obesity under the name Desoxyn, methamphetamine’s illicit abuse greatly surpasses its intended use. The challenge today is simple. Understand that masking a mental disorder rather than handling the cause of the disorder hasn’t solved society’s problems and instead has created outrageous black markets that are creating “sick homes” across the United States of America.

Meth Lab

Nation of Meth Houses

Just how many sick homes?

We have over 142,000 reported meth labs that have been busted in the United States since 2007, and considering that most of those labs are reported to have been located in apartments and rental houses, it’s a dangerously high chance that you may be living in a sick house. Please remember to take into consideration the number of unreported meth labs in operation. In Tulsa County, Oklahoma, police have identified 979 contaminated meth lab sites—the most of any County in the nation and that’s just in 2017—which doesn’t include a large number of meth labs discovered in the surrounding counties.

The State of Oklahoma has a law that ensures landlords must pay a hazardous cleaning contractor to clean the apartment which could cost between $2,000-$5,000 dollars. This mandatory cleaning is only required when law enforcement actually find and condemn the structures. In so many ways, this gives landlords a financial incentive to look the other way and not report drug manufacturers in order to avoid paying to clean out the meth after they evict the meth producers.

Anyone concerned that their home might have been a meth lab or even just a place in which meth was vaporized should contact Narconon Arrowhead Drug Education and Rehabilitation Center and ask to talk to a consultant; I’ll be happy to help you find a hazardous testing team near you. Should you or someone you know suffer from drug addiction we’re also here to help.


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AUTHOR

Joanne

Joanne is a veteran Narconon staff member who earlier worked at the New York Rescue Workers Detox Program.

NARCONON ARROWHEAD

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION