https://kurzman.unc.edu/the-meth-vote/
Charles Kurzman, “The Meth Vote,” November 29, 2016.
This fall, the Department of Health and Human Services released its first detailed estimate of the number of methamphetamine users in the United States. The total: 897,000, located disproportionately in small cities and nonmetropolitan areas.
This is Trump country. Counties with the most clandestine drug lab busts — averaging one or more per year since 2012, according to addresses listed online (new address, 2018) by the Drug Enforcement Agency — supported Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a margin of more than 2 million votes, according to preliminary returns. Trump lost the popular vote in the rest of the country.
Even in rural areas, meth counties voted for Trump by a margin 9 percent greater than elsewhere.
Meth users and dealers are not numerous enough to make a difference on this scale, and they are not likely to be active voters in any case. In Catawba County, North Carolina, for example, 31 people were arrested for possession or sale of methamphetamines and other Schedule II substances in the month before this fall’s election. Of those, only 11 had ever voted.