There’s no disputing that meth is a problem in Utah. The only silver lining seems to be that we have reduced the number of labs making it locally and shifted toward importing it, much like marijuana or cocaine. Why? Because the meth lab remains a danger, long after the culprits are caught and jailed.
A typical scenario is a renter who makes the drug in an apartment. Whether they are caught or not, the apartment becomes a toxic wasteland that either the landlord unknowingly rents to the next person or has to pay to have decontaminated. When an unsuspecting renter moves in, they and their family can face the consequences of the contamination -- an older story from West Jordan tells just such a tale that led to health problems and a miscarriage.
Posted on an ironically named, ”Happy Living” website about home buying, we have information about purchasing a home in Utah. The article title is, “Tips to Spotting a Meth-contaminated Home.” That’s unfortunate and the law in Utah should make this unnecessary, but there’s a loophole.
The law makes it mandatory for a seller to disclose if a house for sale (or an apartment for rent) is contaminated from meth manufacturing. The loophole is the present tense of “contaminated.” If a seller or landlord deems the property cleaned up, they don’t have to disclose the history. And that’s where another problem arises. Owners don’t have to hire a professional meth-remediation company. They can take on the job themselves.
Since a house or apartment that was once used as a meth lab isn’t easy to market, owners have a motivation to just claim they cleaned it up and forget it ever happened. For awhile, you could check the DEA site and see which addresses in Utah had been busted for meth manufacture. Unfortunately, the information there is a couple of years out of date.
One useful suggestion is to search out police and news reports for the address and talk to neighbors.
