Incoming Attorney General Vows to Fight Meth

Attorney General-elect Austin Knudsen was on the KGVO Talk Back show on Monday answering listeners’ questions on a variety of topics.

One of Knudsen’s passions, especially having fought the Mexican cartels and meth trafficking in Roosevelt County near the Bakken oil fields, is taking the fight against methamphetamine statewide. He says the cartels once made their money in marijuana, but the states have taken over that trade.

“The reason that Mexican cartels have gotten so involved in the meth trade is simple economic, and it's the economics of marijuana,” said Knudsen. "So what does any business do when they lose a source of revenue? They look to diversify and replace that income with another product. And that's exactly what has led to the methamphetamine surge, primarily in the western US.”

Knudsen was asked about possible efforts from an incoming federal administration that would seek to limit or control Montanans’ access to firearms, that may violate the Second Amendment.

That's a blatant infringement on the Second Amendment, and we're going to come in hard on that and we would file suit just as quickly as we could.

“Looking down the barrel of a Biden-Harris administration, I think we could very likely see the sort of executive orders coming out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, whether it's an attempt to bring back the 1994 Brady ban, banning certain types of firearms or certain types of magazines,” he said. “First of all, the science showed us that that didn't do anything, but second of all, that's a blatant infringement on the Second Amendment, and we're going to come in hard on that and we would file suit just as quickly as we could.”

Knudsen expanded his list of topics that might draw his involvement as Montana’s new Attorney General.

“I think we could see a lot of other potentially unconstitutional orders coming out of this administration, whether it's the Waters of the US environmental regulation and endangered species topics, actions that could affect the natural resources industry, the agriculture industry, which are the lifeblood of the state of Montana,” he said. “And if we start getting just willy-nilly orders coming out of the White House, I'm going to be standing there very diligently watching, and if we need to be on the front line and filing federal lawsuits, we'll be doing that.”

Knudsen also responded to a plea from a listener to do something about the 60 day wait times to renew a Montana driver’s license, by referring to a successful pilot program in Billings.

“They put in a pilot program where they let a private company come in and open up two locations,” he said. “It's called MVD Express. For a small premium price, they'll process your driver's license in two days, and it's hugely popular. I mean, people love it. People are willing to pay the extra 10 or 20 bucks to get their driver's license turned around quickly.”

Knudsen vowed to appear on a regular basis on Talk Back during his term as Attorney General and take calls from listeners about their concerns.