More Than 195,000 People Sign Online Petition Demanding Meth Testing of Homes

More than 195,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac, test the homes it sells for methamphetamine contamination.

The petition, on the website Change.org, was started by Jonathan Hankins, who purchased a home in Oregon from Freddie Mac that turned out to be a former meth lab, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“Within weeks of moving in, my wife, my two year old son, and I all started experiencing terrible dry-mouth and mouth sores,” Hankins wrote on the petition site. “Then we started to have trouble breathing, and I developed sinus headaches and nosebleeds. My home was contaminated with methamphetamine. But even worse, it was filled with traces of the toxic stew used to cook the drug.” Hankins says he and his family now have to pay their mortgage as well as rent on a second house where they have moved.

There were more than 10,000 clandestine meth lab incidents last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The article notes that thousands of homes nationwide may be contaminated by methamphetamine and the residue produced when the drug is made.