(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Kentucky State Police (KSP) released the 2010 methamphetamine lab statistics today and the number indicates an all-time high in the Commonwealth. KSP reports that there were 1,080 meth labs found during 2010, exceeding all previous year totals.

The top five counties with the highest incidents of meth lab occurrences were Jefferson (154 labs), Laurel (113 labs), Warren (70 labs), Barren (57 labs) and Hardin (53).

Earlier this week, KSP responded to a meth lab at a home in Leslie County where three children were found and treated for chemical burns at Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center. A total of four arrests were made for that incident.

The 2010 methamphetamine lab response costs to law enforcement totaled $2.9 million. This figure includes investigative costs, waste removal clean up, supplies, lab analysis, and transportation of waste from the scene.

Good thing Frankfort is focused on the real cause of this problem (they’re not), which has nothing whatsoever to do with providing real economic opportunities for the uneducated masses who can’t score a gig as a wage slave in Kentucky’s burgeoning indentured servitude industry adventure tourism economy. Remember what Lt. Dan said: Coal haul trails make perfect hiking paths, y’all.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S02BQEzwc6s[/youtube]

So what will happen to the enterprising student who sold the drugs to his friends? Fast-tracked for a job at Lehman Brothers, no doubt. The real moral of this story, of course, will go unchecked, so let’s recap it here: Middle school is boring, and the kids wouldn’t have had to turn to a black market economy if their parents earned enough in the white market one.

A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana — a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, “the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years…”

In Los Angeles, city officials are dealing with elements of public backlash after more than 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries opened, some employing in-house physicians to dispense legal permission to virtually all comers. The boom town atmosphere brought complaints from some neighbors, but little of the crime associated with underground drug-dealing.

Advocates cite the latter as evidence that, as with alcohol, violence associated with the marijuana trade flows from its prohibition.

“Seriously,” said Bruce Merkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, “there is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests.” [The Washington Post]

As measured in Kentucky-time, however, four years is more like a decade-and-a-half. But we’ll hold our breaths anyway because we hear that’s how it’s done.

Man bites dog (redux): What the heck is wrong with people? is a fairly common bit of inner monologue for those who watch the TV news. Anybody with a conscience and a pulse thought it after seeing this story about a man throwing a pit bull off the Clark Memorial Bridge in July. Now comes the sad story of Layla, the boxer mix found beaten within inches of her life last night in the Wyandotte Park area. Layla had to be put down, her injuries too severe to overcome. Let’s not forget that as we focus so much attention on how dogs can hurt us, there’s some mind to be paid to the idiots who defile defenseless animals. Maybe start with jail time.

Pass that weed: Wondering how soon we might legalize marijuana in this country? Dig this excellent story from Newsweek about how Oakland, Calif., is becoming a mecca. Maybe we should try that here in Kentucky, where our budget deficit keeps growing and growing. Regulate and tax it heavily, then sell it like booze. According to the Department of Justice, it’s still Kentucky’s biggest cash crop. Seems there’s money to be made, although given it’s not Jesus Himself bestowing that cash upon us, we’d probably have to endure a little tomfoolery about how marijuana is the new gambling — that is, it will destroy your family and kill you with a thousand blows (to your wallet).

Given that a band of guerilla hemp farmers (including the president of hippie-ish soap magnate Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps) was arrested planting cannabis on the lawn of DEA headquarters, the context of yesterday’s announcement by Congressman John Yarmuth, D-3, of federal funding for a community-based approach to the War on Drugs is made all the more relevant.

“Reducing drug abuse in Louisville is a problem that requires a comprehensive solution. Of course, it takes strong law enforcement work, but also great schools, strong families, and unified communities to ensure we keep our kids away from drugs,” said Congressman Yarmuth. “This funding will support a community-based effort that will work to guarantee a strong foundation of support exists for young people throughout Louisville.” [Press Release]

Of the $21 million Drug Free Communities Support Program grant, $625,000 will be funneled to the PAL Coalition’s 7th Street Corridor over a period of five years, and will augment PAL’s ability to reduce youth alcohol and drug abuse through direct outreach and education in the Parkland, Algonquin and Old Louisville neighborhoods. According to the Center For Neighborhoods‘s website, the grassroots community action/planning organization administering the funds, the money couldn’t have gone to a more worthy cause:

Despite some economic revitalization efforts the Seventh Street Corridor still has the twin urban problems such as concentrated poverty and crime. The community has a poverty rate of 29%. This rate is 2.3 times high than the Louisville-Jefferson county rate of 12%.

This marks a change in direction for Yarmuth — insofar as monetary allocation is concerned — who just this summer threw his weight behind a tried-and-true Nixon/Regan approach. But low impact buy-and-bust drug raids, overcrowded prisons and enormous taxpayer burden have yielded little (if any) tangible benefit. Then again, the funds ultimately find their place of origin within the bipolar Office of National Drug Control Policy, whose “drug czar,” Gil Kerilkowske, has pledged support for two diametrically opposed methods for dealing America’s love affair with drugs, so in many ways Yarmuth is just the conduit.

Instead of breaking down doors and arresting potheads, however, expect more public arts projects, increased surveillance of area liquor stores to prevent illegal sales to minors and pretty much anything else you can think of that doesn’t involve a taser or K-9 unit. The more of the former approach, though, the better, because time — and national drug policies — have not been kind to the 7th Streets across this nation.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A man is suing the Kissimmee Police Department for an arrest over mints. When officers pulled Donald May over for an expired tag, they thought the mints he was chewing were crack and arrested him… [He] was pulled over for an expired tag on his car. When the officer walked up to him, he noticed something white in May’s mouth. May said it was breath mints, but the officer thought it was crack cocaine… May was thrown in jail and was unable to bond out for three months. He didn’t get out until he received a letter from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office that test results showed no drugs were found. [WFTV]

May lost his job and his apartment during his time in jail, and is suing the police department for obvious reasons. The lesson? There is none. But you forgot about health care for a second, didn’t you?