Oil and gas isn't the only industry that's struggled this decade.
According to a recent report in The Tulsa World, the once-thriving Oklahoma meth industry is on life-support thanks to burdensome government regulations and an increased supply of cheap out-of-state imports.
Via The Tulsa World:
Tulsa had a record-breaking 431 meth labs seized in 2011. Police and fire officials were responding to meth lab fires in hotels, apartment complexes and cars.
So far in 2018, Tulsa officers have found one. But the sharp decrease in labs doesn’t mean meth isn’t still in demand...
The number of meth labs found by Tulsa police has dropped dramatically, at least in part because of state laws, but meth use did not. Dealers simply began importing it from Mexico.
“Most of what we’re dealing with (in 2018) has already been made for distribution prior to ... it getting here,” Wollmershauser said.
Many of the one-pot labs Oklahoma was dealing with just a few years ago would produce as little as a half ounce of the drug or up to 2 ounces, police said.
Super labs in Mexico, in contrast, can produce up to 12 pounds per day, according to the academic article “An Analysis of Clandestine Methamphetamine Laboratory Seizures in Oklahoma.”
Wow. That's kind of sad. It seems like it was just yesterday when any toothless mom could head to the back of any neighborhood Walmart and shake n' bake some meth, or a group of derelicts could squat in an abandoned house and produce enough crystal for the entire town of Meeker. Now Oklahomans have to buy meth from Mexican drug cartels. That's ridiculous. How many more Oklahoma jobs are going to be lost to Mexico?! Let's hope Trump gets that wall built pronto. We need to put Oklahoma meth cooks back in business.
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