Best state to live in to do OTR?

I have a house in Pigeon Forge.
It's dead around here during winter time but yeah busy all other times. Endless things to do and places to eat, houses are cheap. No state income tax. Right by i40, i75, i81

Doing OTR i live in my truck though, thats really home lol

 

P

Phoenix is loaded with trucking companies.

 

I've lived here my entire life and I've never had even one item stolen from me by a meth head.

That is absolutely not true. You must be thinking of west Memphis or the I-95 corridor in NC.

 

No, I'm meaning East Tennessee, not Chattanooga area. I have relatives in Chattanooga and it's a wonderful city.
Far east Tennessee is crawling with meth heads. Of course they're in a minority, percentage wise, but seem to have a disportionate number compared to the rest of the state.
There's been news specials about it because there's so many meth labs in east Tennessee.

 

I run from Chatt to Johnson City and back five nights per week and I've never had problems with meth heads at any of the truck stops along I-81 or I-40 east of Knoxville.

 

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
Officials at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation say the Volunteer State now leads the nation in meth use, and if you think the state's meth problem doesn't affect you, think again.

TBI officials said the drug is costing Tennessee taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, and Tennessee counties may soon end up carrying the brunt of the state's meth tab.

"We're No. 1 in something we don't want to be No. 1 in," said Montgomery County Sheriff John Fuson.

Tennessee has ranked among the top three states for meth use since 2007 but has now passed Missouri for the dubious top spot.

This month, the number of meth labs found in Tennessee has jumped from about 600 to more than 715.

TBI officials said they are averaging about one meth bust each day at the cost of $5,000 to $25,000 per incident.

In the past year, meth has cost the state a whopping $1.6 billion between investigations, chemical clean-ups, incarcerating suspects, caring for children of meth addicts in state custody and healing patients burned in meth labs.

"It's a huge cost to people who have nothing to do with meth," said Jesse Reynolds, director of the 19th District Drug Task Force.

Right now the Meth Task Force supplements Tennessee counties with equipment and training to fight meth use, but TBI officials said without additional federal funding this year, the Meth Task Force will be dissolved, placing those costs on local sheriff's offices in 2014.

"You can't just put this stuff in a trash bag and take it to the landfill. It has to be disposed of properly," Fuson said.

Tennessee sheriffs supported a bill in the Tennessee legislature this year that would have made pseudoephedrine, a common meth component, more difficult for abusers to obtain.

That bill failed, but many local sheriffs say they will support the bill again when it goes back in front of the legislature next session.

 

I must be a magnet for them then because I saw them all the time. Even that little place just before you cross over into NC; little pit stop that's the Cosby exit.

 

Station WBIR report.

An East Tennessee county claimed the top spot in the state in 2013 when it comes to meth lab seizures.

Authorities in Anderson County made 83 meth lab busts in 2013. Anderson County is one of two East Tennessee counties that ranked in the top five for meth lab seizures in the state during the 2013.

The other was Monroe County, which ranked fourth. The numbers of seizures there actually doubled the number made in 2012.

But, for the most part, communities across the state saw their seizure numbers go down.

The amount of meth lab seizures decreased slightly, by 7 percent, from 2012 to 2013. In East Tennessee, the decrease was around 8 percent.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, there is no particular reason for the decrease. They said a number of factors may be behind the trend.

First, TBI and local authorities specifically targeted the problem in certain counties where meth is prevalent. TBI said Anderson County received special focus last April.

Also, a number of communities took action into their own hands by creating prescription-only legislation for pseudoephedrine, which is a key ingredient used to make meth.

The City of Harriman in Roane County passed that local rule in 2013. However, the Tennessee Attorney General's Office recently said such ordinances do not comply with state law.

Several days ago, the state comptroller's office also released a report on the production of meth in Tennessee. It found admissions to publicly funded amphetamine treatment facilities in the state were higher in 2011 and 2012 than they were in 2010.

 

I'm not saying meth isn't a serious problem here. I'm just saying that, in my personal experience, truck stops are no worse here than any other place.

 

Wow, you Indiana boys got all defensive. Truth hurt?

I'm thinking you all might have permanent brain damage from running those God awful roads all the time.