Has methamphetamine use dropped or is it all being imported?

[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.