Meth, or crank as it used to be called, has come full circle. It went from the 1980 biker gangs making it in their house with crude chemicals to the 2005 era of Mexican cartels making it pharmacutical grade in factories by the ton.
This article explains how the Cartels have adapted to restrictions in the supply of the main ingredients, pseudo-ephedrine. Thats why you cant buy Sudafed in quantity and they limit how much you can buy.
It illustrates two things.
The failure of the drug wars and the lack of foresight that the mfg 's would adapt and make it the old way , thus a dirtier more poisonous product causing more harm than good.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican cartels are increasingly going "old school" to keep supplying America with methamphetamine despite an ingredient squeeze.
Some gangs have responded to a Mexican crackdown on their meth chemical of choice — pseudoephedrine — by reviving a production method so old, it was used by U.S. motorcycle gangs and bathtub chemists in the 1970s and '80s, recent seizures show.
The re-emergence of the "P2P method" demonstrates how frustrating it is to crack down on a synthetic drug that — unlike cocaine, heroin and marijuana — comes from recipes of chemical ingredients, known as "precursors," instead of a plant.
When police succeed in cutting off the supply of one precursor, traffickers move on to or make another.
"Chemical restrictions are like squeezing mud, the stuff just comes out between your fingers," said Steve Preisler, who wrote the "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" under the nom de plume Uncle Fester and is considered the father of modern meth-making. "They make life difficult for the smurfers (home producers) but for people with connections, well, they find it to be no problem at all."
Still, authorities contend going after precursors has produced results. The crackdown contributed to a sharp decrease in meth production in Mexico and a drop in availability on U.S. streets in 2007 and in the first half of 2008, according to the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center's 2009 methamphetamine report.
Full story here
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...,6928932.story
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Originally Posted by backlash
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