Menticidal Drug, ‘Meth 2.0,’ Becomes a Common Threat to Mexico and United States

Nov. 4, 2019 (EIRNS)—A new, super-pure, cheaper variety of methamphetamines, dubbed “meth 2.0,” is killing people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.

The Sinaloa Cartel is the chief producer of this latest instrument of this modern Opium War. Mexican Secretary of Defense Gen. Luis Crescencio Sandoval reported on Oct. 30 that Ovidio Guzman, whose attempted arrest triggered the drug cartel assault on Culiacan, is wanted as a principal trafficker of meth, as well as fentanyl. But Mexico not only suffers from the terror of the cartels’ producers; mass addiction is spreading there, too. A top Mexican health official reported during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Oct. 29 press conference, that methamphetamines, and in particular, the crystal form, have become the greatest national addiction problem, along with cocaine.

USA Today published yesterday a snapshot of the horror it wreaks on the U.S. side, in the case of the poor Upcountry region in northwest South Carolina, where meth 2.0 has become the number-one drug of abuse. The area is close to Interstate 85, which has long been a major trafficking artery into Atlanta for all kinds of drugs. This meth comes up from Mexico, primarily in liquid form, and is processed into crystal form in labs in the area.

Dr. Paul Earley, American Society of Addiction Medicine board president, told the paper that “crystal meth accelerates the reward circuits in the brain more powerfully than any other drug we have,” making it much harder to break addiction. People are starting to use this meth at a younger age in the county, and are shifting from snorting or smoking, to injecting. Treatment specialists report “at least 90 days of intensive counseling and therapy to get started on recovery. And even then, nearly all of them can be expected to relapse multiple times before reaching sustained recovery.” A county coroner reports that 25 people died from meth overdose in the area last year; already by September this year, 39 people had already died.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only counts deaths from overdoses, methamphetamine kills users over time. “Meth takes a severe mental and physical toll on chronic users, destroying their appearance and substantially shortening their lives. ‘If you want to know whether a town has a meth problem, just go to Walmart and take a look around,’ Pickens [County] Chief Deputy Chad Brooks said. ‘Its symptoms are unmistakable: rotting teeth, skin lesions, extreme weight loss and premature aging,’ ” USA Today reports.