How & Where Meth Is Manufactured

As is the case with most things, it boils down to common sense. When smoked, methamphetamine can be quite harsh. And adding flavored powders and other additives to methamphetamine accomplishes at least three things. One, it makes the meth easier to ingest. Two, it serves as a convenient cutting agent for methamphetamine, which increases profit. Three, it adds a bit of novelty to the whole redundant process of using meth. But as we mentioned, where this typically happens is not at the time of cooking the meth, it happens when the meth is being "stepped on" and packaged for re-distribution, or just prior to being used. Some meth dealers like to "brand" their product, and flavoring it is one way of doing that.

Now of course others would have you believe something else. They want you to believe that despite the tons of methamphetamine currently being imported, despite the hundreds of meth labs still being seized every week, and despite larger and larger seizures of methamphetamine and the spread of meth clear around the world, the drug dealers are hard up for customers. In fact they're so hard up, they're out to get your child's allowance.

The truth is, addressing the meth issue with scare tactics, exaggeration and "supply reduction" strategies has been a massive, colossal failure. It doesn't work today, and it hasn't worked since God told Eve not to eat the apple. Just have a look at our page called "The Other Faces Of Meth," and you'll see there are no shortage of markets for selling methamphetamine. The fact is, if you're looking to find viable demographics to sell meth to, you're going to focus on people with either a lot of money, a lot of motivation for using a stimulant, or ideally, both. You are not going to be targeting children, it just makes no sense whatsoever.

Here's a quote from someone who was deeply involved in the business of methamphetamine, and is now in recovery from addiction to meth and alcohol:

"From all my experience while dealing meth and other drugs, I think the idea of someone flavoring meth with the intention of attracting kids is ridiculous.

Even in meth circles, it wouldn't just be frowned upon, there's a good chance it could get you seriously beat up or even killed. Flavoring meth just makes it more enjoyable to smoke, which is how 90% of addicts are doing it, including most of the 'non-pros' selling it.

Just because it ends up looking like candy, doesn't mean it's aimed at kids, who by the way, are never a target market for anything other than small quantities of weed by low-level dealers. The fact is, 95% of kids either buy their drugs from someone they know well, or have it given to them by friends."

So now we know the truth about strawberry meth. And now that we don't have to pay attention to what's not true, we can focus back on what is true about meth purity, and the different adulterants or cutting agents used in it.

As each week goes by, we're hearing of different adulterants or agents that are used to "cut" or dilute meth. The most notable of these was from a recent seizure at a funeral parlor where evidently, embalming fluid had been used in the cooking process of meth. It's quite likely the specific chemical that was being used was formaldehyde or formalin, which has also been added to cannabis causing a somewhat "PCP-like" punch. This is really playing with fire (no pun intended) and we strongly urge anyone thinking about adding this drug to anything they're taking, DON'T - it's a really stupid id ea.

So the point is, when you're doing illicit drugs like meth, you have to place a lot of trust in the person you're buying it from. Realistically, you're never really 100% sure exactly what you're getting, because even your dealer is 100% sure. It could be 5% pure, or it could be 95% pure or even higher. It could be completely clean meth that's been properly manufactured, or it could have God-knows-what in it in latent form.

And the real tragedy is that once you become addicted, you don't even care. In fact once you do become addicted to meth, you don't really care about anything other than getting more meth. That's not meant to scare anyone, it's the truth. And if you don't believe it, it only takes a few minutes to go on a meth forum and confirm that it is true about methamphetamine, and frankly, anything else you become addicted to.

The only visible "markers," or tell-tale signs you have of purity are in color and form, and even that can be deceiving. However, all other factors being equal, (and remember, they rarely are) meth in crystal and ice form will traditionally be much more potent and contain less adulterants and cutting agents. Powder meth is easier to adulterate, so there's not even any point in saying that a brown-tinged meth is less potent than pure white - you just never know.

The bottom-line is that the only real way to know the purity of the meth that's in front of you, or how safe it is to take, is to take it and see what happens, or have it lab tested. Obviously, in the first option, you become the experimental lab rat or guinea pig. And the section option is likely to get you arrested fairly quick.

When you look at the list of meth adulterants and cutting agents below, you'll see why meth can eat into a person's face, body and soul so fast. As we said earlier, powder methamphetamine is easy to "cut," or dilute, and crystal meth can be diluted and "re-rocked" as they say in some meth circles. Some of the more popular agents are salt, powdered sugar, and "MSM" which is Methylsulfonylmethane, a supplement used for strengthening or building up damaged cartilage in both humans and animals. MSM is easily obtained in both bulk and small quantities from either health and nutrition stores, or farm supply outlets.

Other cutting agents for methamphetamine include talcum powder, granulated sugar, antidepressants such as Prozac, protease inhibitors, Ritalin, Adderall, laxatives, aspirin, birth control pills, caffeine, epsom salts, Viagra and No-Doz alert pills. Basically, the best cutting agents for meth are substances that have similar solubility, melting, and boiling points because they will blend the best.

Obviously, each cutting agent or adulterant added to meth also adds its own liabilities for use. For example, talcum powder is frequently used to cut powder meth and that just happens to be a great way long-term to get lung disease. But the bottom line is that in order to boost profits, dealers will cut meth with whatever they can get their hands on that will blend in. Some organized distributors of meth are so sophisticated, they have separate facilities for post-production cutting of meth called "cut houses." And again, the real driving force behind this type of activity is money.

Powder methamphetamine is the hydrochloride salt form which is strongly hygroscopic (absorbs water from the air quickly). The HCl salt is smokable as is, though not easily so. "Crystal Meth" or "Ice" refers to methamphetamine grown into crystals. Though many people believe that crystal meth is the freebase form of methamphetamine HCl, this is not true. Methamphetamine can be vaporized to gas in its normal HCL form, but taking the time to grow it into crystals makes it easier to vaporize and inhale. Meth in visible crystals (rather than powder) is usually usually inherently purer because it's difficult to grow it into crystals when you're beginning with impure "starter" material.

The hydrochloride salt has to be very pure before the crystals that distinguish ice from meth will form. So as a rule, while low-grade street meth may have a purity level of 10-30 percent, ice has a purity level of 80-near 100% pure. (in a perfect world) Methamphetamine "freebase" is an oil and is uncommon on the street, but often found in meth labs where the meth making process hasn't been finished.

Ice methamphetamine first appeared in east Asia, perhaps Korea or Taiwan. From there, the drug made its way to Japan, and from there it went to Hawaii around 1990. A couple of years later it reached California's meth circles, and in about 1999 or 2000 it hit the Midwest and South, from eastern Oklahoma through Missouri and Kansas, down through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Georgia. But because ice was initially so expensive, it didn't hit hard – not like crack with the little two dollar vials all over the streets. But it hit hard enough to be noticed by law enforcement.

On the next and last of our pages in this section, from the perspective of how and where meth is made, let's look at what the future may hold and why the real challenge presented by methamphetamine may still be ahead of us.