I have to agree with USPC40. We have lots of meth labs where I live, and we keep running into them in cars, hotel rooms, barns, etc. There's a big difference between some clerk at your local sporting goods store calling the cops because you bought two boxes of ammo for your 1911 and them making a call because they think someone is making meth. Lemme 'splain.
As more of the precoursor chemicals for meth become controlled, the tweakers get more inventive in trying to find, make, or replace them. Many law enforcement agencies have tried to educate local merchants as to what to look out for as far as unusual purchases to try and snag meth cooks. If someone purchases five cases of Sudafed or a similar psuedoephedrine product, odds are REAL good they're cooking meth. Same thing with MSM from western or vet-supply stores- no legitimate stockman or vet is going to use 40 lbs of MSM in a couple of years, let alone a few weeks. And just having some merchant call and say so-and-so just bought five cases of Sudafed is not, by itself, enough for the police to get a search warrant- they will still have to investigate and develop probable cause.
Now, say some tweaker sets up a box lab in a hotel room that his girlfriend rented under her name, 'cause he's got a warrant or some such. He spends all weekend cooking up a batch, then bugs out. You and your family are in town the next weekend to visit family and happen to stay in that room. Guess what? You and your loved ones just got exposed to all kinds of nice toxic chemicals that can lead to respiratory failure, brain damage, etc. Same thing with the apartment or house you just moved into, or the used car you bought. These people dump their waste chemicals into the ground, the river, lakes, whatever they can find, and they don't give a shit what it does to other people.
Granted, the media will take the latest crisis and milk it for all it's worth to sell papers, get ratings, etc. That being said, if you think methamphetamine is just the 'flavor of the month' and is not a real problem, you're woefully ignorant of the situation. If you have a problem like meth labs, it's only responsible to let citizens know what to look for and tell them to call if they see it. All that does is give LEO's a place to begin an investigation. You shouldn't have to have a background check done to buy household items, but neither should merchants have to ignore signs of possible criminal activity, especially one that affects EVERYONE in the community in the way that meth cooking and use does. As an LEO that works dope and has been in many meth labs, I can tell you for a certainty that this problem is NOT a figment of the media's imagination.