Meth-lab busts down; dealers getting drug from Mexico
NASHVILLE — Law-enforcement agencies across Tennessee are trumpeting a drop in meth lab busts, but their excitement is tempered by a cheaper, stronger version of the drug coming from the same Mexican drug cartels that bring heroin and cocaine.
Methamphetamine lab busts and seizures are down 41% across the state, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Other meth-heavy states such as Missouri and Oklahoma have seen similar trends this year.
Stronger enforcement and new legislation regulating the sale of key ingredient pseudoephedrine are getting credit for the drop, but Mike Stanfill said it also is tied to large amounts of the drug that have started coming in from Mexico in the past year.
Stanfill, who is assistant special agent in charge at the Nashville office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said dealers who once had to collect enough pseudoephedrine to cook meth themselves now find it easier to buy the drug from outside sources.
Mexican cartels are making larger batches of meth using an alternative to pseudoephedrine that is illegal in the United States, according to the agency.
Meth coming from cartels also has become both more dangerous and more affordable.
The purity of Mexican meth increased from 39% in 2007 to essentially 100% today, said Jim Shroba, special agent in charge for the DEA's St. Louis office. The price over that same period has fallen sharply, from $290 per pure gram to around $100 per pure gram.
Despite the new challenges in the war on meth, the drop in manufacturing does make Tennessee safer, according to Tommy Farmer, special agent in charge with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Methamphetamine and Pharmaceutical Task Force.
"One can in no way downplay the ills of meth use and the broken lives and broken families that result from it," Farmer said. "But when it is is manufactured in clandestine labs in Mexico, not clandestine labs in Tennessee, we don't have the collateral damage. We are not dealing with the raw materials or byproducts or waste that is generated with manufacturing. We are not having to deal with children who are exposed or the environmental impact."
Meth has been a scourge in this state for years. Between 2008 and 2012, Tennessee and Missouri reported the two highest numbers of meth lab incidents in the nation, according to the Tennessee Comptroller's Offices of Research and Education Accountability.
Law-enforcement officers waging a statewide war on methamphetamine reported finding 1,995 meth labs in 2013, a jump of more than 11% since 2012, according to a TBI report on statewide crime in 2013.
Gov. Bill Haslam signed a law in the summer that set monthly and annual limits on cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine. More than a dozen Tennessee cities established more severe regulations, passing ordinances that require prescriptions for medicines with pseudoephedrine.
On Friday, Farmer estimated that 906 labs had been seized across the state in so far 2014.
Police Chief Dennis Young in Winchester, Tenn., where the city requires prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-based medicines said meth labs in his area have fallen dramatically. But the change in the supply system also has led some users to other drugs.
"A lot of the meth addicts are switching over to prescription drugs," Young said. "We are seeing statewide an uptick in prescription drug abuse."
Mexican cartels are using existing supply chains to distribute their new meth, using the same carriers that ship heroin or cocaine, Farmer said. Some traffickers hide the meth in barrels of oil or fuel tanks; others package it in Gatorade bottles.
In the past, meth dealers arrested had only pocket change and a small amount of the drug. Now, Stanfill said some officers are coming across dealers with tens of thousands of dollars and more than a pound of meth.
"It's a cat-and-mouse game," Farmer said. "When you build a better mousetrap, you make smarter mouse."
Contributing: The Associated Press