P. read in the paper that Matt got arrested, charged with whatever may be the official equivalent of intent to manufacture methamphetamine. He and another guy whose name we didn’t recognise were noticed “behaving suspiciously” when purchasing pseudoephedrine from a drugstore. The pharmacist called the cops, who then followed them to (I believe) two more pharmacies, where they also purchased pseudoephedrine. Nobody has a cold or allergies that bad, so it was fairly obvious what they intended to do, and they got stopped. They had the pseudoephedrine, plus a small amount of weed (possession small amount, not intent to distribute amount). They got taken to jail, and according to the next thing P read in the paper, they were being held on $50 000.00 bond. I don’t know where Matt’s real father is, but I do know that his mother and stepfather most likely do not have a spare $5000 floating around to give a bail bondsman (presuming it’s still 10% you have to have), and Matt himself certainly doesn’t have it. I suppose D. and his wife could take out a loan on their house, but whether they’d do that just to get Matt’s skinny arse out of jail, I don’t know.

On one hand, Matt deserved to be arrested and charged because he’s 28 years old, so he’s an adult, and although I don’t know him that well, I do know him well enough to see that he’s in full control of his faculties, and is of at least average intelligence. It’s not like he didn’t know that he’d have to get pseudoephedrine from the pharmacist because it’s been taken off shelves, and it’s not like he didn’t know that authorities are well aware of what it’s often used for (that’s why it’s not on the shelves anymore), and that pharmacists are instructed to report anything suspicious right away. If they don’t, they might just lose their jobs. Seems like every city and even some small towns in the midwest claims itself “the meth capital of the country”, but that’s because meth is a problem, and particularly in areas where good jobs are scarce (check, and even the bad jobs are disappearing), a large part of the workforce is unskilled (check), and the real estate market is so poor that even if they did want to move, they couldn’t because the house wouldn’t sell in anything like a hurry, if at all (check). This is an agricultural area–our Wal-Mart is actually bordered by a field of milo and another of soybeans–and agriculture provides ready access to tanks of anhydrous ammonia. Although I don’t know how to make meth myself and I’m not interested in learning, I do know that’s one ingredient used in the process. Anyway, no matter where the meth capital may be, it’s a problem here, and Matt was aware of that. He lives in the same small town as I do, so do his parents, and that was true when the meth lab on the top floor of a house two blocks from here blew up a couple of years ago. He knew it was illegal, he knew that it’s a big deal for local authorities to appear Tough On Crime® in this War on Drugsâ„¢ because we always Think of the Children©. He accepted the risk, gambled and lost. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail.

OTOH, I know Matt. We’re not close friends, but I’ve hung out with him at the course at least weekly for….oh, almost two years. He has a big, fat, nasty bitch of a wife, and an adorable little girl who’s not quite two and always smiling. She adores her father, and grandpa, and uncle Josh, and sometimes, Matt even brought her, towing her in her little red Flyer wagon (with canopy) when he came to play. I’m not a kid person, but she’s really cute, and a good kid; easy to amuse, and not too much trouble. Matt’s great with her, even when she’s tired and fussy and he’s obviously frustrated. Anyway, my point is that Matt isn’t some sleazy drug dealer, selling his wares to buy new spinners for his brand new Suburban, and spending the rest on whores. He’s an ordinary guy; he drives an ordinary car that’s a few years old, he lives in (I believe) a rented house over on the other side of town, and he works nights as a meat department manager at Wal-Mart. I don’t know whether his wife works, but if she doesn’t, then he supports her and the baby. If she does, then somebody’s getting paid to look after the little one because even if they worked opposite shifts, Matt would be sleeping during the day, and you can’t babysit a two-year-old if you’re asleep!

I’m going to hazard an educated guess that if he intended to manufacture and distribute meth, he was going to do it to supplement an income that just wasn’t enough. Yeah, yeah–get a better job. Where? What we laughingly term an “industrial park” has two businesses remaining in it; if you want to work at one of them, you’ll have to wait for someone to die because nobody will give up a secure job that pays reasonably well. The other is the last remaining sweatshop in the country, and that I know because P. worked there for a while when we first arrived, just until he could find a real job, and it nearly killed him. The rest have all shut down. What’s left? “Would you like sauce with your nuggets, sir?” That’s about it, except for Wal-Mart, and that’s where he does work. We know how well Wal-Mart treats its employees! His father is a drywaller and so are his twin half-brothers (so they don’t necessarily have steady work themselves), his brother works at the sweatshop. There’s really nothing else here. A few small companies–insurance and the like–but those are businesses that offer jobs to maybe half a dozen people. So move, right? Great…and moving expenses come from where, exactly? If you don’t have enough money to pay rent where it’s cheap because the area is economically depressed, then you surely don’t have enough money to move somewhere else, and especially when you’re moving away from your parents, who have been helping provide child care. It’s one big fucked-up circle that leads nowhere.

I don’t excuse Matt, and I don’t think his arrest was illegal, but I surely do understand his motivation. I don’t want meth labs blowing up in my neighbourhood any more than anyone else does, but if we’d just stop this stupid War on Drugsâ„¢ and legalise it, then maybe we could get some safe, legal manufacturing plants here and bring some goddamned jobs. I don’t care if someone wants to do drugs–if, as an adult, you want to inject poison into your veins and end up with meth mouth and a face covered with open sores, more power to you. As long as you’re not driving under the influence of drugs (which is already illegal, as it is for alcohol), it’s your body, and your business. Snort fucking Drano if that makes you happy, but the War on Drugsâ„¢ is nothing more than a way to piss away our tax dollars and create a black market of potentially toxic substances, and ends up costing us a fortune to incarcerate people who probably would not have broken the law if they saw another viable option.

I’m Bob Heskett, and that’s the way I see it! 🙂