Big industries play key roles in meth problem

While I agree with Laura Behrens that Nick Reding's book, “Methland,” has severe editing flaws, Reding is right on the money in several of his key points regarding the meth epidemic and the problems of rural America.

The first regards the ability of near-monopolistic pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations - which, rather than acting within the constraints of a free market, virtually control the market and act against the public interest. Take the case of a few pharmaceutical giants which since the mid-1980s have hamstrung efforts by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to bring key ingredients of meth under federal control. This helped ensure their profits, but also aided the criminals who have flooded our country with meth. Think about that the next time you take your cold medicine!

And agribusiness, too, which controls the market every step of the way from producer to consumer, claims it needs low-wage labor to prosper, and what better form of low-wage labor than undocumented immigrants (at the cost of local workers). Rather than penalizing or taxing firms that employ such workers (Postville is just a drop in the bucket), the government, bought off by agribusiness and its lobbyists, has looked the other way.

Thus, some of our small-town neighbors, out of work and desperate, turn to producing meth in their houses or backyards. This has been going on for years, and yet where have local journalists been in exposing it?

And our state and local politicians, where have they been?

Thanks, Nick Reding.

Harvey Sollberger

Strawberry Point