I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but my city has always been "welcoming" to homeless folks and it has never been a huge problem. Now it looks like an actual zombie apocalypse out there in some parts, and there are periodically meth busts of hundreds of pounds in just random apartments, not even kingpin types.
Combined with the anecdotal evidence from social workers, there's a whole lot of smoke out there that the "new meth" theory might explain.
The random apartments are probably stash houses used for storage of bulk quantities that would be broken down and distributed to dealers.
I’m not sure I follow? I know drug fear-mongering is a favorite tactic of politicians but I’m not sure I understand what government contractors have to do with it. Are you alluding to private prisons? Or perhaps some other piggy-back industry that I’m unaware of?