Cold medicine/crystal meth update

A couple of weeks ago, I began to wonder if too much was being made of the crystal meth-cold medicine link. Thanks to Channel 3000, I think I have an answer to that. No. And yes.

First, cold medicine certainly is being used to produce the stuff. Take it from former user and meth cooker Dana Beise:

Beise said a teenage girl either bought or stole Sudafed and similar products from pharmacies and supermarkets and then brought it to her and her boyfriend to make the drug.

"She went everywhere -- to North Dakota even, to Iowa," Beise said. "They would just take road trips and come back literally with garbage bags full."

But that isn't the biggest source of meth. It's Mexico, as I hinted at in that earlier post:

Beise said she thinks the soon-to-be law will help shut down the labs in Wisconsin, but the problem is 80 percent of the drug supply is coming from so-called superlabs in Mexico.

So what does that say about legislation in Wisconsin restricting the sale of certain cold medicines? Well, moving it behind the counter is probably a good thing, as is a per purchase limit. Requiring an ID and tracking the sales, while disturbing to those of us who are law abiding citizens, will show patterns of purchase from people willing to travel far and wide to acquire the cold medicine. Logic would dictate that it may concentrate meth labs in border areas, though, if Illinois, Iowa, or Minnesota have looser laws than Wisconsin.

The Mexico connection creates another interesting thing to contemplate, though. If crystal meth is the new crack cocaine, and an estimated 80% of the supply is coming from Mexico, isn't this just another reason we should clamp down on illegal traffic over the U.S.-Mexico border?

Update
Mike points us to this well written piece on this topic by Jeff Wagner. I don't disagree with what Wagner says. In fact, I've allowed my opinion on this topic to evolve as I've learned more and more. There is one unique aspect to the manufacture of crystal meth, though. It is possible for the masses to engage in making this stuff, unlike most other drugs (marijuana being the exception). That creates additional problems that drug enforcement does not need to worry about when it comes to drugs like cocaine and heroin. The chief concern is how do you stop the 'professional' stuff from Mexico. The additional concerns are how do you keep the amateur stuff off the market? How do you keep the amateurs from killing themselves while making it? How do you keep the amateurs from putting out a bad batch and poisoning several people. How do you keep the amateurs from poisoning their own families while making the stuff? If 80% is coming from Mexico, 20% is still coming from somewhere else, and that's no small amount. Yes, the big busts are going to come from those getting caught with the Mexican crystal meth. Yes, some amateurs are going to have a way to get a hold of ephedrine from Mexico. Most amateurs are going to be trying to score the ephedrine-pseudophedrine from sources readily available to them, though, and most are going to be dealing with small batches and still making good ching off of it. The state has minimal control over anything that is coming from Mexico, but they can try to snuff out that which they can control-that especially dangerous local amateur crystal meth manufacturer.

I'm not squarely on the side of the state on this issue yet, I'm just leaning their way. And I started on the other side of this issue.