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When young and stupid, I didn't always vacate the premises when someone had illegal drugs. Now, it's a totally different story. Light up and I become one with the highway.

I'm wiser.

Your doper friends have friends. Do you trust them? Do you trust their dealers?

How inconvenient would it be to pay a grand or so to replace your apartment door? If the police obtain a no-knock warrant they will bust right in. Who do you think will pay for that? Your friends may have towering legal fees. Just keeping your deposit probably won't cover the damage, and if you fail to honorably settle for damage and the costs of your eviction, your credit is going to take a serious hit. The landlord doesn't even have to call a credit bureau. All the landlord has to do is file in small claims court. The landlord will pay a $75 filing fee and won't pay a cent otherwise. The judgement against you will follow you for years like a puppy from a Stephen King novel.

How do I know? I was that landlord, once. An apparently nice couple who rented from me had ties I didn't know about to the Los Zetas cartel. There was about $1500 in repair cost following a no-knock raid.

The DEA confiscated more than $100,000 in cash in the raid but they had no intention of paying for damage. That was for me and the renters. I wasn't angry, just chapped for being dragged into the situation. The police told me I was lucky they only found meth, not the means to manufacture it. The EPA follows in the wake of meth lab busts. The hazmat cleanup can exceed the cost of a dwelling.

The lady of the house got to stay out of the indictments and keep her infant child because hubby agreed to roll over on Los Zetas, leading to another bust in Chicago. What do you think the Los Zetas thinks of the unindicted members of that household? Think they are completely safe? Los Zetas is known for sending messages with decapitations.

You know your friends are cool, though. Are your friends' friends cool? Any ties to serious crime? They say we're all just six links of indirection from Elvis. How many links away are you from Los Zetas, and if you think that's a ridiculous question, then why did I end up renting to one of their associates?

But it's Austin. Nobody cares about drugs there. Heck, even the DEA gives Austin a free pass, right?

Or, maybe not.