Just as the country struggles to cope with the opioid epidemic, another epidemic brews beneath—that of methamphetamines.
While overdose deaths involving opioids have slightly decreased since the peak in late 2017, overdoses involving crystal meth are continually rising.
Cartels Dominate
It used to be that meth was regularly coming out of “home labs” that were producing the drug with only about 25 percent purity, Daines said.“It’s Mexican cartel meth” now, he said, with a purity of over 95 percent.
“It’s much more potent, the prices have come down because there’s so much more being produced, and the distribution certainly has become much more sophisticated,” he said.
Precursors From China
Meth is prepared from chemicals including ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which are found in some cold and cough medicines. The United States has clamped down on illegal use of the precursor drugs, but the cartels are mostly getting them from China, the 2016 report stated.“Around 80 percent of precursor chemicals used in Mexican meth come from China. Precursor chemicals are increasingly being shipped from China to Mexico, where they are manufactured into meth, transported across the southern border of the United States, and brought into southwestern states—Texas, Arizona, and California—before being shipped across the country.”
The State Department has previously stated that Chinese criminal syndicates are using a tactic where they ship the drugs from China seemingly legally, and then divert the shipment en route to illegal meth producers.
Some experts have noted that China is using drugs as a form of warfare against the United States. They spoke specifically about fentanyl, the ultra-potent synthetic opioid involved in about 33,000 deaths in the 12 months ending March 2019.
“It opens up a number of opportunities for the penetration of the country, both in terms of laundering money and in terms of blackmail against those who participate in the trade and become corrupt, like law enforcement, intelligence, and government officials,” he said.
Opioid Connection
While cheaper meth from Mexico fuels the supply side, the opioid epidemic seems to be boosting the demand.There are anecdotal accounts online of people using meth to beat withdrawal symptoms when trying to get off opioids.
“The toxic drug actually exacerbates symptoms in the vast majority of people,” he said. “And even though meth does help with opiate withdrawal in some users, the cons far outweigh the pros.”
Treatment
Meth addiction is currently treated by behavioral therapy.While opioid withdrawals can be mitigated by mild prescription opioids like methadone, there’s no such treatment for meth.
During the Oct. 24 hearing, Daines said he’s pressed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a medication-assisted treatment for meth.
But Surgeon General Jerome Adams, one of the witnesses, said that “unfortunately, the research out there right now is not promising.”
The NIH has spent millions and continues to spend more to develop such treatment, he said.
“But our best solution right now is prevention. It’s trying to get upstream, it’s trying to deal with these problems before they turn into the next wave of a meth epidemic.”