Meth and a Small Town

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune has a painful article detailing one small town and it's rural county dealing with meth addiction in its population. (Site registration may be required to access the article.) I have been involved in the meth fight here in Wisconsin for probably five plus years attempting to stem the tide. Given my knowledge base, I was still stunned by a county official's following comment:

"Financially, meth already inhales more than 10 percent of Kanabec County's annual levy of $6.7 million, the total raised for law enforcement, schools, roads and other expenses.

If you are unaware of "redneck cocaine" and it's devastation heaped on primarily rural America, you need to read this article.

As an aside, when speaking with a agribusiness owner in rural Wisconsin a few years ago and my response to his inquiry regarding what I was currently working on was answered with one word, "meth." He later told me it wasn't an issue that he thought had anything to do with rural Wisconsin, it must be, in his mind, a Minneapolis or Milwaukee problem. His attitude was shifted when over a subsequent dinner conversation with his family, who reside in a three digit population town, he related his discussion with me to them. His middle school aged child immediately chimed in, "Oh, yeah, redneck cocaine. I know a couple kids at school that do it." He later told me if his kid knows about it in Gnawbone, Wisconsin, it must be everywhere. "Yeah, pretty close."