Has methamphetamine use dropped or is it all being imported?

[Averageman]

We had an incident when we lived in a moral rural area where there was a guy cooking dope about a 1/4 mile from my house seventeen years or so ago. I had a friend who was bird hunting ten years ago walk up on a very recently abandoned cook, I mean like he heard the back screen door slam.
I don't hear about those things much anymore? Is it all being imported from Mexico now?
I ask out of curiosity and having lost a step-son to that crap.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

I won't speak for other regions, but 'round these parts, meth is still going strong. Much like most of our hard drugs, it is mostly imported from south of the border, as I haven't run into a meth lab in the last 4 years.

[WickedWillis]

We had an incident when we lived in a moral rural area where there was a guy cooking dope about a 1/4 mile from my house seventeen years or so ago. I had a friend who was bird hunting ten years ago walk up on a very recently abandoned cook, I mean like he heard the back screen door slam.
I don't hear about those things much anymore? Is it all being imported from Mexico now?
I ask out of curiosity and having lost a step-son to that crap.

Still going strong as hell up here in Northern Idaho, Western Montana and Eastern Washington.

[WickedWillis]

We had an incident when we lived in a moral rural area where there was a guy cooking dope about a 1/4 mile from my house seventeen years or so ago. I had a friend who was bird hunting ten years ago walk up on a very recently abandoned cook, I mean like he heard the back screen door slam.
I don't hear about those things much anymore? Is it all being imported from Mexico now?
I ask out of curiosity and having lost a step-son to that crap.

Still going strong as hell up here in Northern Idaho, Western Montana and Eastern Washington.

[Esq.]

The days of the Walter White backyard cook are pretty much gone. Meth is coming in from Mexico Super Labs- the Chinese sell them all the pre cursors by the train car load, same with Fentanyl and CarFentanyl.

[WickedWillis]

The days of the Walter White backyard cook are pretty much gone. Meth is coming in from Mexico Super Labs- the Chinese sell them all the pre cursors by the train car load, same with Fentanyl and CarFentanyl.

Still plenty of home cooks up this way. Especially in rural MT.

[Averageman]

I guess being in Texas it's imported now. You know if it is imported this is going to be a bigger thing here pretty soon.
Just sayin' we've got a higher propensity to do elicit things when we are isolated for long periods of time, well this might be a real bitch in six months or less.

[utahjeepr]

So from what I hear, local cookers can't compete with the Cartel/China partnership. There is still cooking being done, but most comes in from Mexico or is cooked in US labs run by the Cartels. The Cartels are big into "legal" pot and their presence in the US is growing. I have even heard that they are investing in legit pharma and compounding interests as a laundering/supply network.

[CRAMBONE]

The vast majority in the US is imported. Local home brew folks can’t compete quantity or cost wise (and most of the time “quality” wise) compared to the super labs south of the border.

[Artos]

Yup...it's huge & we catch tons of it daily. Hard to imagine what gets past the river / poe's & 60mi check points.



The days of the Walter White backyard cook are pretty much gone. Meth is coming in from Mexico Super Labs- the Chinese sell them all the pre cursors by the train car load, same with Fentanyl and CarFentanyl.

[seb5]

It hasn't went away around here at all but with it coming through our Southern border via cartels we don't see labs anymore. Also the price is way down, the lowest I've seen in 30 years. The opioid crisis is in the news because of the people that are overdosing and the demographics it effects but meth hasn't went anywhere.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Ah, the good old days of Artisanal meth... hand crafted with loving care...

[El Vaquero]

Meth is thriving everywhere. Mostly coming from Mexico. There’s no point in making in homes or make shift meth labs or shake n bake style anymore as the Meth from Mexico is affordable and usually of good quality.

There’s so much meth coming through even large drug busts don’t even disrupt the street prices.

[TheAlsatian]

Still going strong as hell up here in Northern Idaho, Western Montana and Eastern Washington.

Yes I was on a federal drug task force in Montana in 2000 and 2001. That was the beginning of the meth push out from WA State. Most meth in the US comes from Mexico, but there are lots of small producers(most use their own product). The problem with local production is it is much harder for the cooks to get the precursors these days.

[Screwball]

Still meth labs in northern ME. Back when I was in NJ... one was just a few doors down from my old office. Haven’t recently been hearing about ones being discovered due to exploding.

We feel it is going across the border (into Canada) in some more remote areas. Definitely in some of the areas up here.

[SteyrAUG]

I won't speak for other regions, but 'round these parts, meth is still going strong. Much like most of our hard drugs, it is mostly imported from south of the border, as I haven't run into a meth lab in the last 4 years.

Mostly this, with some local home brew still available in trailer parks. But heroin is turning most meth addicts into heroin addicts.

[joedirt199]

Cheaper to get it from mexico as they can make it in super labs at higher quantities. Good thing is when they wrong the mexicans, they take care of business themselves and we as law enforcement don't have to worry about that drug dealer anymore. We have had a few cases of middle men holding dope and money for the bigger guys takes a little too much for himself. One was body parts dumped in a subdivision that was still being built, the other went for a four wheeler ride with 3 other guys and got shot by several different guns and ammo types. They left him for his daughter to find.

[Jermedic]

Meth is quite plentiful in AZ from what I see as a medic. Most of it these days comes from south of the border around here.

[Vandal]

Meth is still very much around, along with it's only pal heroin. At least in Western, WA meth is stupid cheap right now and the "quality" is very good.

The meth we see in the US is mainly imported from the Mexican super labs, though the cartels do have production facilities in the US as well. Typically run out of old farms in the middle of no where. They get the precursors from China by the truckload, as previously mentioned. The smuggling trails are the freeways and Mexican border crossings anymore and are used for meth, heroin, and the fentanyl/carfentanyl importation. Then it hits the major highways and spreads out from there. Coke is still around, but pricey.

Nothing I love more than stopping a car or rolling up on one and seeing the little one's in the back playing with mom and dad's meth pipe, then finding needles in the diaper bag.

[teufelhund1918]

I would say that the majority of the meth in the USA is coming through the Mexi Cartels. With no enforcement of law, corrupt government officials in Mexico and unlimited supply of fentanyl from China, they can kick out tons of it in their superlab warehouses and get it into this country when there is no border enforcement. I have a friend that is on the local drug taskforce and they just had one of the biggest busts of cartel crystal meth in the area along with a lot of cash. Not very long ago they had the largest bust of liquified meth in the area. Southwest Va has alot of cartel people who have set up shop in the area to help transfer drugs around the area. It is crazy what is happening and continual. A relative of mine just got foster care of a new born along with the 18 month old from two methheads that do nothing but kick out kids and do drugs. Meth and prescription drugs have destroyed Appalachia. The local area where I grew up in looks like WW3 and 4 went through the town because of the meth and scrip crisis. It is depressing to go back to my home town and see what is going on. It is all over the area that I live in now. I just don't think that the people up in the government that could do something really give a f@#& about it to be honest.

[Todd.K]

You really need to separate that into two questions. Meth use in the US vs meth production in the US.

[Averageman]

You really need to separate that into two questions. Meth use in the US vs meth production in the US.

Well the reason I asked it that way is that, the Labs used to be found pretty regularly around here. Actually had one blow up 1/4 mile from the house and had a running gunfight with the cops and tweekers.
I caught my Step Son cooking in a coke bottle one time, walked right in on it.
I was thinking perhaps it had become out of vouge to do speed anymore, but if tweekers are still tweaking it's got to be coming from Mexico.
Heroin seems to be coming back strong.
Having grown up in the sixties, this speed then Heroin thing seems almost cyclic.

[Vandal]

Having grown up in the sixties, this speed then Heroin thing seems almost cyclic.

There are graphs out there that show the cycle of when CNS stimulants are popular vs when CNS depressants are popular. They are cyclical and seem to follow about a 7-10 year cycle from the last one I saw. Nationwide we seem to be in a strange spot of extended transition going to from depressants to stimulants again. It's going to get spicy again in the next few years as meth comes roaring back. It is no longer a trailer park/OMG drug, I work in a pretty affluent area and we are seeing meth in the upper middle class populations.

[Averageman]

Having seen that drug destroy my step-son, kill his wife and crap all over, then our marriage from dealing with all of that, I don't want to see the next up-swing.

[gunnerblue]

Well the reason I asked it that way is that, the Labs used to be found pretty regularly around here. Actually had one blow up 1/4 mile from the house and had a running gunfight with the cops and tweekers.
I caught my Step Son cooking in a coke bottle one time, walked right in on it.
I was thinking perhaps it had become out of vouge to do speed anymore, but if tweekers are still tweaking it's got to be coming from Mexico.
Heroin seems to be coming back strong.
Having grown up in the sixties, this speed then Heroin thing seems almost cyclic.

I haven’t seen homegrown meth in years- it’s almost all coming over the southern border or through the ports. Heroin, and in my area especially, pills, are more common these days due to lower cost.

[JediGuy]

Meth isn’t just for hillbillies. It was used for years by the wealthy, as I recall between WWII and at least Kennedy, who used himself.
I’ve always been far too straightlaced to have any clue how people even buy it, but I’ve watched it destroy people.
Meth kills the mind, heroin sets it free, and you eventually end up dead from one of them or alcohol.

Anyway, I’m curious what smart people think are possible solutions.

[TehLlama]

Based on the number of stolen bicycles and break-ins at trailheads, I'm guessing use hasn't decreased here at all.
I'm sure somebody in mexico has figured out a fully applied economy of scale preparation setup given that we haven't had as many arbitrary RV explosions, but it's there.

For my part, I just want to hang in there until asthma actually kicks my ass properly in a few decades

[Ruark]

Yep. The cartels roll it out in 55 gallon drums. Don't go near them, though. They'll do things to you that make ISIS look like a bunch of girl scouts.

[C-grunt]

Imported vs home grown is going to be based on location. Here in the southwest it's pretty much 100 percent smuggled in. The farther you get from the border the more likely you are going to see labs pop up. Smuggled in will always be the majority of it as the cartels are just pumping out huge quantities.

The new thing we are seeing here in Phoenix over the last couple years are the fentanyl pills. They are known as the "Mexican 30s", "Mexican blue", or "blue 30s". They are a fake Oxy pill but use fentanyl instead of the regular opioid used in actual RX pills. It's killing people left and right. But they are cheap, easy to transport, and get you super high.


Here in Phoenix meth is definitely still around but heroin and the fentanyl pills have taken over.

[ViniVidivici]

Use, nor production, have gone down, if anything, it's just not talked about as much.

See how that works?

And it's going to get worse, not better, with states like mine (WA) and OR decriminalizing in one way or another.

When you decriminalize hard, destructive drugs, but do NOT at the same time massively increase punishment for crimes associated with said drug, that throws things COMPLETELY off balance, and will fuel crime AND the drug use like nothing will.

[lowprone]

The Feds and their mouthpieces the media are hiding their heads in the sand thinking it will go away now that Orangeman is not
personally bring in tons of the shit everyday in AF 1.

[Vandal]

Use, nor production, have gone down, if anything, it's just not talked about as much.

See how that works?

And it's going to get worse, not better, with states like mine (WA) and OR decriminalizing in one way or another.

When you decriminalize hard, destructive drugs, but do NOT at the same time massively increase punishment for crimes associated with said drug, that throws things COMPLETELY off balance, and will fuel crime AND the drug use like nothing will.

It's going to make every mid-level and major city look like NYC did in the mid-70s to 90s when Rudy took over. The crime and violence are going to go off the charts. Drug use is hardly a victimless crime.

[Entryteam]

We had an incident when we lived in a moral rural area where there was a guy cooking dope about a 1/4 mile from my house seventeen years or so ago. I had a friend who was bird hunting ten years ago walk up on a very recently abandoned cook, I mean like he heard the back screen door slam.
I don't hear about those things much anymore? Is it all being imported from Mexico now?
I ask out of curiosity and having lost a step-son to that crap.

My first 5 years on SWAT, I cannot begin to count the number of labs we hit mid-cook. Then it started to drop off as people died or went to prison. Now, down here, nobody cooks anymore. It's exceedingly rare. Most of it comes in from Mexico or China. Easier to mule it than to make it.

[Uni-Vibe]

East Texas labs can't compete with cheap potent stuff from Mexico.