Big Money In Mexican Meth

WND Exclusive CONTROLLING THE SUBSTANCES Big money in Mexican meth New laws cut down on U.S. labs, but drugs still flow Posted: August 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

While new state and federal laws are cutting down the number of U.S. meth labs, the deadly drugs continue to flow into the U.S. across the porous border with Mexico, say law enforcement authorities.

The federal anti-meth law was recently amended to permit states to impose their own stiffer restrictions and penalties.

In Oregon, for instance, legislators now require cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a principal ingredient in methamphetamine, to be sold only by prescription.

With the passage of these new laws, several state narcotics bureaus have reported the number of meth lab busts to be down by as much as 90 percent over the previous year, according to Jim Kouri of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Oklahoma is one of those states. Since April 2004, the first state to ban over-the-counter sales of everyday cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine has seen a dramatic decrease in the makeshift labs that produced meth.

But at the same time, seizures of smokeable Mexican meth known as "crystal ice" rose nearly fivefold, from 384 cases in the 15 months before the law to 1,875 since.

Mexican cartels have seen the profit potential and filled the vacuum created by the tough new laws in the U.S.

Ice is a very pure, smokable form of methamphetamine that is more addictive than other forms of the substance. Ice is similar in appearance to rock candy, crushed ice, or broken glass. It contains the same active chemical compound as powder methamphetamine, but undergoes a recrystallization process in which some impurities in the methamphetamine are removed. The finished product is allowed to dry into crystal chunks that are broken into rocks for sale.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s website says that historically, criminal groups from South Korea, Taiwan, or China supplied ice to Hawaii and parts of California, but the availability of Mexican-produced ice has increased abuse in areas of the country that were previously untouched.

Because it metabolizes much slower than cocaine, methamphetamine has longer lasting effects. Agitation, tremors, hypertension, memory loss, hallucinations, psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions, and violent behavior can result from chronic abuse.

"The nation’s prisons and addiction treatment centers have also seen a dramatic increase in what is known as meth mouth, which is the extreme deterioration of dental health because of the damage caused by the chemicals used to make the drug and lack of proper nutrition," says Kouri. "Withdrawal from high doses of methamphetamine often produces severe depression."

(Couldn't help but notice that's quite a list of keywords you posted there.)

While new state and federal laws are cutting down the number of U.S. meth labs, the deadly drugs continue to flow into the U.S. across the porous border with Mexico, say law enforcement authorities.

At least the writer didn't make the mistake of thinking the anti-meth-lab laws were meant to do anything to curb meth consumption. The laws (at least here in Iowa) have done exactly what they were intended to do. That is, the number of meth labs has reportedly decreased some 70%. The meth lab problem -- e.g. the dangers associated with them and the cost of cleaning them up -- is nowhere near the problem that it used to be.

But, if we're serious about winning the War On Drugs, it cannot be won by focusing mainly on the supply side. As long as there is demand, supply will strive to meet it.

So if in Oregon, if you needed Claritan D, you would have to pay $100+ just to see the doctor to get your allergy medicine.

Here in Indiana - it's a pain. My brother has to go in every 10 days and purchase Claritan D. It takes at least 15 minutes (instead of 5) to sign the book, check your ID, sign your life over, etc...

Great - they decreased US labs. Now we've got Mexican labs which are even worse... not the greatest forward thinking on the part of our government. What is this, get rid of a lesser evil, so the bigger evil can take hold?

"Ice is a very pure, smokable form of methamphetamine that is more addictive than other forms of the substance. Ice is similar in appearance to rock candy, crushed ice, or broken glass. It contains the same active chemical compound as powder methamphetamine, but undergoes a recrystallization process in which some impurities in the methamphetamine are removed."

I don't think this is entirely true. Ice is regular meth that has gone through an additional chemical process to "glass it up." The additional process does not clean out impurities. I handle a lot of meth cases and see a lot of crime lab reports showing the purity levels of seized meth. Some of the ice is pure as can be, as is some of the regular meth, but just like the other stuff a lot of it is low grade, even under 50% pure. If the meth they "glass up" to make ice is impure, the ice is also going to be impure. It's just going to sell for a higher price because people on the street mistakenly believe that ice is cleaner than regular meth. It's all the same crap. It's all addictive as hell. Ice is not more addictive than regular meth, but smoking meth probably brings on addiction faster than snorting it, just like shooting it up apparently gets people hooked faster. Regular meth is smoked, injected, or snorted. Ice is not well suited for injection or snorting. It's more for smoking.

"I think the decrease in labs statistic has to be B.S.Do they really think the meth makers are just going to quit or get in their car and drive to a neighboring state to buy their stuff. I would think they would do the latter..."

I know they aren't b.s. I'm a public defender in an area with a bad meth problem. We used to get several meth lab cases, meth lab paraphernalia cases, or over-possession of pseudoephedrine cases every month. Since new laws putting the pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters passed a few months ago we are hardly getting any new meth lab related cases. There's still plenty of meth, but it's being brought in from Mexico or states out west.

The thing you have to understand is that the overwhelming majority of meth labs being busted in this country were little tiny small batch labs. Most of these guys out there were cooking up less that five or ten grams at a time. There were a few who would cook off batches of a couple of ounces or more but those guys were rare. We didn't have any of the "super labs" like they have in Mexico and out west where they cook up ten pounds or more at a time. These were all little labs tweakers had set up where several would help each other out cooking dope and do all or most of the product themselves. We were filling our jails and prisons up with these guys and it wasn't doing us a bit of good. They were making big messes leaving their toxic waste all around. They were cooking it in their homes with their children who all too often were ending up becoming wards of the state. Young people who wouldn't have been able to afford to do much meth were keeping in steady supply by helping out doing things like rounding up boxes of pseudoehpedrine and other supplies, scraping the red phosphorous off of matchbook strike-pads, and so on. There were a lot more people around here able to stay wired up for days and days on end that way with all the free or dirt cheap dope.

I'm glad the new laws have passed. It won't end the meth problem by any means but it takes care of serious part of the problem, and it does it without being an expensive burden on taxpayers. Oklahoma claims they are saving something like $10,000,000 a month not having to prosecute all the meth lab cases. I don't know how much we are saving but I know it's saving us a ton of money. How often does the government pass a law that accomplishes a goal and saves tons of money at the same time?

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