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I'm not sure what you are asking. If you are asking if most of the meth in this country is produced using pseudoephedrine bought or stolen in small quantities from stores, the answer is most definitely no. Most of the meth consumed in this country comes from "super labs" in Mexico and western states. These labs also use psuedoehedrine tablets but they have illicit sources that allow them to buy in bulk. There is also another method for producing meth that does not require pseudoephedrine called the P2P method. Most of the big labs used to use this method but now it is rarely ever used because there are tight international controls on the chemicals necessary for it.

These big labs though are only a tiny fraction of the labs operating out there. Oklahoma for instance was busting I think an average of 109 labs per month before they passed there new laws and none of them were "super labs." Most of the labs we see where I live are little set ups where they are only producing a few grams at a time, enough for the cook and the people helping him with maybe a little left over to sell. There are almost always several people involved. Some are gathering pseudoephedrine and other supplies. Some are providing locations like a trailer home in the woods. Some are helping cook it by doing things like scraping red phosphorous off of matchbook strike pads. All get free or super cheap meth in return.

While all these little labs are producing maybe fifteen percent of the meth on the streets in this country, they still present huge problems. They leave toxic waste that has to be cleaned up at great cost. Small children are often present and they often end up with health problems the rest of us have to pay for. A lot of people go to prison, and we end up having to provide for their every need while they are there and pay to have their children cared for while they are gone. Investigating and prosecuting these cases is very expensive and most of the time these people are indigent so we pay to defend them as well.

Aside from all of these considerable expenses, I personally think that these labs are creating a lot of addicts. Look, people are going to do drugs. Some small percentage are going to mess with drugs like methamphetamine. Most will do it once or a few times and then grow out of that phase in their lives without ever becoming addicted. Meth is cheaper than cocaine, but it is still expensive. Most people can't afford to do it a whole lot, and that's a good thing because it's a highly addictive drug and the more someone does it the greater the chance he'll become addicted. These meth labs though take the expense hurdle to addiction out of the equation. For a little effort and maybe a few bucks for generic pills, people helping meth cooks can keep a constant supply of meth. I have no doubt in my mind that this is helping create new meth addicts. It's unbelievable how many of the addicts I represent have been or are involved with cooking the stuff. Most of them couldn't really afford it otherwise.