Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll in Real Estate (Part 1: Drugs)
By Charles TurnerI know better than to think that I have seen it all when it comes to owning homes and being a landlord. Actually, I know I am fortunate because one subject I have no firsthand experience with is meth. It’s hard to watch or listen to the news today without being very aware that most of the crime around Portland is meth related. The manufacturing of meth turns the production facility (usually some unknowing landlord’s house) into a hazard material’s clean-up site! Instantly uninhabitable.
By law, Oregon property owners are responsible for cleaning up the mess left behind when a meth lab is raided. Most property owners comply with the law, using one of 24 state-licensed firms to clean and decontaminate the former labs.
It’s a hardship for owners who are often unaware of the drug activity. They end up paying a cleanup bill which can range between $3,000 to $100,000, said Horton.
Read the rest of “In Oregon cleaning up meth labs is a costly process.”
On April 10, 2005, The Oregonian published, “Did you buy a meth house?” Since the owner of a house is responsible for its cleanup, a new buyer could be stuck with the bill if the house doesn’t have a clean bill of health from the Department of Human Services!
The Drug Lab Cleanup Program has lots of valuable information about the problem and cleaning it up.
Perhaps more important is the list maintained by The Department of Consumer & Business Services, Buildings Codes Division:
List of Current Drug Lab Properties. In Multnohmah County, there is only one property on the list on the west side of the Willamette.
It’s hard to watch or listen to the news today without being very aware that most of the crime around Portland is meth related.
Bold assertion. Are there any statistics to back it up?
I agree that this is a big problem for a lot of different reasons, but meth has been around for decades. Back in the ’70s it was called crank and was mostly the perview of outlaw bike clubs.
Seems to me that the recent prominence of this story, while welcome, relates more to flavor-of-the-month news hysteria.
The other night on channel twelve, I saw on their recurring segment “Meth Watch” that a marijuana growing operation had been busted. Apples and Oranges do make a tasty fruit salad I guess……
Okay, maybe a little bold and sweeping.
reads in part:
Knowing what percentage of each type of crime in the County was related to meth abuse is made difficult because law enforcement officers do not subject all arrestees to urine analysis. However, in 2003 the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program, using sampling, determined that 25.4% of male arrestees and 29.7% of female arrestees tested positive for methamphetamine use in Portland.