personally, i have no idea if poachers are meth heads or not. just kind of spitballing that one! reason i threw that out there, is if you have land that abuts up to public or state land, which many drug operators use to grow pot and to make meth on, they have to eat, so i would suspect it's possible they may take to poaching for meat to eat. and if they are illegally making or growing drugs, i doubt they are going to let something like your property lines or fences deter them from crossing them to get a poached deer.
now that is simply an observation, and an opinion, for which i have no facts to prove or disprove if it's true or not.
now what i do know for a fact is even in our county they have busted pot growing operations and meth labs in very rural areas of the county. and i live in very rural area of our county.
I guess it's possible.
My own experience and we have lots of pill heads , methheads, and lead the nation in tons of pot grown, is that those dealing in such endeavors have enough money to eat.
And concentrate almost wholly on their trade. Most are to lazy to go kill an animal. Much less skin or cook it. As far as Meth cookers and users go.
Pot growers, at least here , might actually hunt but usually legally.
Strange I know but when you have 50,000 bucks or more crop growing and hidden, taking a chance on getting unwanted attention to oneself isn't worth poaching which money wise is small potatoes.
Meth users almost stop eating and lose weight rapidly along with their teeth rotting out.
Not saying it never happens but usually one involved in the drug market tends to concentrate on just that.
That's where the big money is.