State by state it is becoming harder for your local methamphetamine manufacturer to obtain percursor chemicals to make their poison.

Missouri Governor Bill Blunt last week signed a tough new bill into law. The bill requires:

1. Purchasers of ephedrine or pseudephedrine containing cold medicines must also be at least 18, show photo ID, and sign a log that police can later review.

2. The bill requires that powder pill forms of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine be placed behind the counter at pharmacies.

3. Convenience stores and other retail outlets that do not have licensed pharmacists or technicians on site can no longer sell the drugs. They have until July 15 to send pills back to the manufacturer or give them to someone who can legally sell tham.

4. The new law also imposes limits on the amount an individual can buy: 9-grams a month of any powder pill medicine containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine. That means customers could buy about 12 boxes containing 24 pills each month – more than enough to take the maximum does of the medicine around the clock.

“These bills will keep the key ingredients needed to make meth – ephedrine and pseudoephedrine – out of the hands of drug manufacturers and, by doing so, will put them out of business,” said Blunt, who flew to five cities Wednesday for ceremonial bill signings.

Indeed!

Since the Congress has failed to enact national legislation to restrict these precursor chemicals, let the states do it one at a time!

Now, the DEA and the DOJ must go after Mexico.

Nearly one in three gay and bisexual men who tested positive for HIV at a major Los Angeles clinic last year acknowledged using crystal methamphetamine, an illegal drug that increases sexual risk taking, according to a new study.

This story mirrors one Flap published in March of this year about the New York Methamphetamine connections with the Gay community.

That’s almost triple the rate of methamphetamine use in HIV-positive men in 2001, officials at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center said. They presented their data, based on 19,300 tests over four years, at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.

Although there is general agreement that meth is a growing threat to gay and bisexual men nationwide, the latest numbers were higher than some experts expected.

“It does surprise me,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of sexually transmitted disease control in San Francisco. “It’s an important and serious problem.”

Quentin O’Brien, the Gay and Lesbian Center’s director of health and mental health services, called the increase startling. When asked if the problem had peaked, he said, “No one knows. We’re on the upward trend right now.”

But, now someone is recognizing the problem and may actually do something…….

Later this month, one local group serving HIV-positive clients will begin a small marketing campaign on sex-seeking websites and in the gay press, encouraging meth users to become educated and seek treatment.

The campaign’s slogan is “Get off now,” said Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Being Alive, a coalition of people with HIV and AIDS.

“One of the things we need to do is create a different social norm in the gay community, making it unfashionable to use crystal,” Moshoyannis said. “We want to get to the point where peers are saying to one another, ‘No, I don’t use crystal, and nobody’s doing that now.’ ”

In the past, those who treated substance abuse and those who treated HIV did not necessarily collaborate.

“There’s been HIV funding and there has been drug treatment funding, and those are different arms of the government, of the county,” said Cathy Reback, a researcher and director of prevention at the Van Ness Recovery House in Hollywood.

As meth use has been increasingly linked to HIV, though, “there has been tremendous movement in the right direction,” she said. Reback and colleague Steve Shoptaw plan to open a clinic in West Hollywood this year to provide meth abuse treatment to gay and bisexual men, along with education on how to reduce their HIV risks.

Gay or Straight Meth is a problem that needs immediate national attention.

Too many folks are dying from an Unnecessary Epidemic.

Now, college chemistry students are manufacturing Meth.

A San Diego State University chemistry student was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine and other illicit narcotics on campus.

Federal agents took Matthew Finley, 26, into custody at his Ocean Beach home, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported.

A search of the Santa Monica Avenue residence turned up methamphetamine, the potent analgesic fentanyl and several marijuana plants, DEA officials said.

Investigators also sealed off the building that houses SDSU’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory and searched a work area assigned to Finley, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree, according to the DEA.

There, they allegedly found more methamphetamine and fentanyl, as well as a quantity of the psychoactive drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.

Hey DEA how about raiding the labs in Mexico.

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

In the Unnecessary Epidemic, Mexico is playing an increasing role in the scourage that is sweeping across the United States.

Flap previously featured this series of stories from Steve Suo and the Oregonian newspaper that was first published in October 2004.

June 5, 2005

MEXICO CITY — America’s methamphetamine crisis is now rooted in Mexico, where drug cartels are illicitly obtaining tons of pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient needed to make the potent stimulant:

Mexico’s imports of the cold medicine have jumped to 224 tons from 66 tons in the past five years, customs records show. That’s roughly double what the country needs to meet the legitimate demands of cold and allergy sufferers, an analysis by The Oregonian newspaper of Portland, Ore., found.

U.S. officials say meth production in Mexico is rising because Mexican traffickers can no longer easily obtain pseudoephedrine in the United States and Canada, which have cracked down on companies that sell cold pills. The number of Mexican-run “superlabs” found in California has plummeted in the past three years, the officials say, yet Mexican-made meth remains widely available on U.S. streets.

The spread of methamphetamne has so sensitized other states that numerous state laws have arisen to limit the sale of methapmphetamine precursor chemicals like pseudoephedrine.

Now, more international efforts must be undertaken in Mexico and in other countries to affect interdiction of these chemicals.

Although some U.S. officials predicted three years ago that traffickers would start acquiring massive amounts of pseudoephedrine in Mexico, the U.S. and Mexico failed to prevent it from happening.

U.S. officials say they have been talking to the Mexican government about the country’s surging imports of pseudoephedrine powder since 2003.

But those discussions have been largely confined to officials below the Cabinet level. Senior U.S. law enforcement officials have not raised the issue in their public testimony before Congress.

Mexican authorities have moved to restrict the number of cold pills consumers can buy in pharmacies and have shut down a number of distributors. But only this year is Mexico beginning to roll back the amount of pseudoephedrine companies can import.

Mexican officials have told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that they have reduced their import quota 30 percent this year. That reduction, U.S. officials say, applies to 2004 import levels.

But those reduced import levels will still leave traffickers an ample surplus from which to obtain the pseudoephedrine they need.

Then, the President must give policy direction to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to further reduce import levels. If legislation is needed, the Congress must act – and act quickly.

The newspaper’s analysis, drawn from demographic data and independent market research, offers the first publicly available estimate of how much cold medicine Mexico legitimately needs. The analysis suggests that Mexico’s legitimate demand is between 90 and 130 tons — roughly 100 tons less than the country imported last year.

The Oregonian’s assessment includes data from one of Mexico’s largest discount pharmacy chains and other industry sources. Some statistics, such as precisely how much pseudoephedrine is distributed by public health agencies, could not be directly obtained.

Mexican health officials have told international authorities that the country’s legitimate demand may be as low as 70 tons, or a third of what Mexico imported in 2004. That estimate was presented as tentative and the Mexican government is still refining it.

The International Narcotics Control Board in Vienna, which tracks the global drug trade, is examining Mexico’s pseudoephedrine imports and suspects the recent increases cannot be explained by the legitimate market. DEA officials say they have not tried to calculate Mexico’s legitimate demand. They do not know whether Mexico’s planned import reductions will be enough to eliminate illegal diversion.

The failure to halt diversion of pseudoephedrine products made in Mexico has profound consequences for cities and towns across the United States.

The devastating effects of methamphetamine are ravaging almost every community in the United States.

Numerous stories are printed daily about this drug bust, this crime, this legal loophole or this tragedy because of methamphetamine.

This scourage can be eliminated by interdiction of precursor chemicals.

It is time for the President and Congress to act.

Read the remainder of Steve Suo’s excellent artice here:

Steve Suo is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. He can be contacted at stevesuo@news.oregonian.com. Suo reported this story in Mexico City and Vienna. Freelance journalist Adrienne Bard contributed to this report in Mexico.)