How & Where Meth Is Manufactured

Just 18 to 24 months ago, both the "how" and "where" of methamphetamine production would have centered almost exclusively around the "mom and pop" domestic meth labs that for many years, were growing almost exponentially across various regions of North America. Although their methods of manufacturing were crude and generally small-scale, they were a huge problem from several perspectives.

However, when stricter retail controls on products containing meth's chemical precursors, were introduced, the typical "mom and pop" meth lab became less and less of a factor. But that's now changing again, as many regions are reporting a resurgence of the mom and pop lab. That's in great measure, due to precursor chemicals coming in to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, as well as the "one-pot" method of making methamphetamine, which reduces cooking time by 75 - 90%.

Canada of course, has far fewer restrictions on medications containing precursor chemicals for making methamphetamine, and bulk importation of precursor chemicals, so we're a perfect environment for not only the small-scale lab to flourish, but meth "superlabs" as well. But there is also heavy export of precursors to the U.S. and hence, the resurgence of the small domestic meth lab.

In May of 2008, several nations gathered to form an accord on precursor chemicals for making meth, but let's be realistic, this is another "supply-reduction" approach, and it really doesn't have much impact. There's so much money at stake, those who want to make methamphetamine on a large or small scale are going to find the means to do it.

Ironically, even when most jurisdictions were reporting fewer meth lab seizures, they weren't really noticing less methamphetamine in their area, just fewer labs. That can be explained in at least two ways. First, for meth produced domestically in the U.S., many of the traditional "mom and pop" lab have been replaced with meth "superlabs" because precursors are purchased in bulk. In Canada, we more or less skipped the "mom and pop" style lab and proceeded right to superlabs because we have tons of precursor chemicals here, mostly brought in legally from India, China and elsewhere.

In addition to being capable of producing multiple pounds per batch or cooking cycle, superlabs are far more sophisticated, organized, and much harder to locate and detect. And they're not always where you would typically expect to find them. More and more are being discovered in upper-middle class and upper-class areas. In December of 2006, a meth lab was even discovered in a penthouse in New York City. These labs are also producing a product that's cleaner and far more potent.

Secondly, there's been a huge increase in imported methamphetamine that typically originates from methamphetamine superlabs in Mexico and increasingly, other off-shore nations. Obviously no one knows what the numbers are, but the bottom-line is that when seizures of methamphetamine are made today, the quantity is greater and the purity is higher than back in the hey-day of the "mom and pop" lab.

You must also remember that meth users who have become meth "cooks" or manufacturers are by nature, a tight-knit group, very paranoid and extremely mistrustful of outsiders. To that end, meth manufacturing and distribution centers are now often found equipped with infra-red cameras, motion detectors, plus a lot of other sophisticated equipment you just never found in the typical "mom and pop" lab.

So in this section of our examination of methamphetamine focuses primarily on the "how" and the "where" of the issue. We'll make some reference to the "mom & pop" level lab, but that's covered more completely in the "Dangers Of A Meth Lab" section.

Also, in discussing the "how meth is manufactured" issue, we're going to go a bit deeper than simply telling you that the precursor chemicals for meth are ephedrine and more typically, pseudoephedrine. That's because once you understand where the actual precursor chemicals for making meth come from, you will have much greater insight into where the evolving story of methamphetamine is likely to go next. So on the next page, we'll begin at the "root" of the issue if you will.