I saw a rerun of Frontline the other night that discussed the ever-expanding range of methamphetamine. It's a little out of date (the program debuted in February 2006), but still very much relevant, especially in its treatment of the history of the drug's production.
You can watch the program here, and read the riveting series in The Oregonian which is the foundation of the episode here.
The Oregonian calls the meth epidemic an "unnecessary" one, because as with quaaludes, a particular chemical is required to produce the drug. You can't just grow it like coca or opium poppies, so if you kill production of the chemical, you kill the drug.
Gene Haislip, number 3 guy at the DEA during the 80's was interviewed for the program. He thinks the epidemic could have been stopped in its tracks back then had ephedrine and pseudoephedrine been banned. The pharmaceutical industry and their government shills (including himself at one point, he freely admits) got in the way.
Today I read in the NYT that meth is expanding its foothold in Europe now too, spreading out from the Czech Republic. No superlabs there, apparently, but huge numbers of small cook operations entirely dependent on over the counter cold medicine purchases. Europe Fears That Meth Foothold Is Expanding
Generally speaking I'm in favor of drug decriminalization/legalization, but at this point, I can't tell you how much I'd prefer the production of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were regulated into quaalude-irrelevance rather than the ugliness of meth continue to spread.
NC instituted new regulations about buying pseudoephedrine a few years ago. Sellers are required to keep lists of who buys it and how much, with a limit on the amount.
The maker of Sudafed has already come out with a new type suffixed 'PE' that supposedly can't be used for making meth and isn't covered by the new restrictions.
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When he was 15, one of my friends in high school was making meth in his attic. His mother caught him before he finished. Being a future chem major and stoner isn't a good idea...
NC instituted new regulations about buying pseudoephedrine a few years ago. Sellers are required to keep lists of who buys it and how much, with a limit on the amount.
Local regulations at the city/town level have motivated increased state and federal control of OTC cold remedies. Another show on PBS right before Frontline noted that a state senator couldn't get a behind-the-counter law passed until the local councils started passing a bunch of different ordinances. Since pharmaceutical companies like things standardized, they stopped fighting the state laws.
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The maker of Sudafed has already come out with a new type suffixed 'PE' that supposedly can't be used for making meth and isn't covered by the new restrictions.
Interesting, and if true, not at all surprising. Necessity is the mother of invention.
The Oregonian calls the meth epidemic an "unnecessary" one, because as with quaaludes, a particular chemical is required to produce the drug. You can't just grow it like coca or opium poppies, so if you kill production of the chemical, you kill the drug.
this can't be true. perhaps you have me on ignore, but ephedra is a plant, much like poppies and coca.
I don't think she does, ITSOZ. I think it's apparent even to you that her post precedes yours. What is not so apparent to you, in all likelihood, is that nobody owes you a response at all, much less in a timeframe to your liking.
Your pics are nice, but not so inspiring that I'll feel my life diminished so much as it would be by continuing to notice you. Back you go.
Methamphetamine is not made from ephedra. It is produced using the chemicals ephedrine and pseudophedrine, both of which are synthesized in a lab. You need the chemicals to make meth.
Last edited by livius drusus; 11-23-2007 at 06:23 PM.
Reason: Methamphetamine isn't easy to spell.
but at it's root (so to speak), is ephedra, which is where ephedrine comes from. yes, it is refined and synthesized, but that's not much different from how cocoa turns to crack, or opium into codeine...
and epidemic sounds pretty extreme and cliched. this is the same bullshit you hear about all drugs at one time or another. and at the time- all were the worst drugs ever! it's just a game that gets lots of subservient brutes walking the streets with guns, to rid the streets of those dangerous drugs...and keep the people in line.
I don't think she does, ITSOZ. I think it's apparent even to you that her post precedes yours. What is not so apparent to you, in all likelihood, is that nobody owes you a response at all, much less in a timeframe to your liking.
Your pics are nice, but not so inspiring that I'll feel my life diminished so much as it would be by continuing to notice you. Back you go.
huh? it was an honest question and that's a rather extreme reaction.
chuck, you have lost the title of being the most angry retard here.
and let's get one thing straight, newest angry retard...
i don't care if i am ignored. i mentioned being on ignore to see if it would garner a response. if not, i would not have pursued the matter. i am not hurt by this. i don't feel put out. i am not bothered by being ignored, i am bothered that people ignore. i may have given my own interpretation of what that feels like, but the only person that can hurt me here, is me.
i'm not sure what set you off, but if you saw me feeling sorry for myself or trying to zing liv somehow, you've got it wrong. you should really learn to relax. and remember...more guests seem to read my posts than any other. imagine that?? ...that said, there are some stubborn people here, so if liv hadn't replied, i would assume she had me on ignore and would have ceased my replies.
I think meth wasn't really taken seriously here in MN because it hit the rural areas first, more than the cities. (Nothing important ever happens in rural MN, never mind that 95% of the state is rural <-- sarcasm here)
Once it really took hold in the cities, it became a problem, so far as the powers that be were concerned.
but at it's root (so to speak), is ephedra, which is where ephedrine comes from. yes, it is refined and synthesized, but that's not much different from how cocoa turns to crack, or opiums into codeine...
Ephedra is not used to make ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, just like aspirin is not made from willow bark. The plant is not involved at any point in the production of methamphetamine. The chemicals are synthesized, created in a lab from chemical components. Without the synthesized chemicals, meth cannot be produced.
In actual fact, the production of the drug is so closely connected to the availability of the chemicals that whenever the distribution of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine has been disrupted, the production of methamphetamine has plummeted, even without the government intending the effect.
More about that on this page of The Oregonian series.
I think meth wasn't really taken seriously here in MN because it hit the rural areas first, more than the cities. (Nothing important ever happens in rural MN, never mind that 95% of the state is rural <-- sarcasm here)
Once it really took hold in the cities, it became a problem, so far as the powers that be were concerned.
I think urban effects are so concentrated that they become a lot harder to ignore than even widely spread problems in rural populations.
But that snooty "it's only happening in trailer parks/the midwest/away from me" attitude is poisonous. The Frontline program had a clip of Bush's Drug Czar talking about how people in the northeast would laugh at you if you said there's such a thing as a meth problem. Like that's any kind of rebuttal to a request for action, not to mention the obvious ass-biting it portends.
Meth is a huge problem in NZ, and despite the chemicals being heavily regulated with over the counter sales of ephedrine, etc, being monitored and purchasers having to sign a police book, kitchen labs are everywhere. Even customs are seeing more and more smuggling of the chemicals used to make meth come into the country than, say, coke, smack or ecstacy.
I think it's a pretty scary drug and I hate what it is doing to NZ society.
I think part of the problem is the modern culture of hyper-everything. Work faster, harder; play faster, harder; live faster, harder - rush, rush, rush, rush, rush - quick! quick! be superhuman, see it all, do it all, NOW! - do not go gentle...rage! rage!...etc
*sigh*
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The Meth Epidemic
...that said, there are some stubborn people here, so if liv hadn't replied, i would assume she had me on ignore and would have ceased my replies.
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