Methamphetamine

Methaphetamine Watch: Mexico Cuts Cold-Drug Imports to Battle Meth

Thousands of empty cold medication packages litter the highway outside of Tijuana, Mexico. The pseudoephedrine contained in the medicine is used to produce methamphetamine, and the area around Tijuana is home to many clandestine laboratories that produce the drug.

The Oregonian has Mexico cuts cold-drug imports to battle meth

Drug war – The new policy restricting pseudoephedrine could crimp the flow of meth to the United States and drive up its street cost

Mexico plans to slash imports of pseudoephedrine by 40 percent this year, acknowledging that drug cartels have artificially inflated demand for the key ingredient in methamphetamine.

Health officials in Mexico said the country has been importing more pseudoephedrine than its citizens need for cold medicine, and imports will be cut from 224 tons in 2004 to 134 tons in 2005.

Mexico’s new policy is among the boldest by any country to prevent diversion of the cold-medicine ingredient by drug traffickers. And it could disrupt at least temporarily the main source of meth production for the United States, reducing the drug’s availability to an estimated 1.4 million American users.

Read the entire piece here.

Kudos to California Senator Dianne Feinstein for her role in pursuading Mexico President Vincente Fox to investigate this problem.

Stay tuned…. the Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 is being attached to the updated 2001 Patriot Act extension and should clear the House within a few weeks.

Previously:

Mexico: Primary Source of United States Methamphetamine Crisis


Methamphetamine: Oregon Tightens the Prescription of Pseudoephedrine