14 May 2008
Mexico, China Partner with U.S. in Anti-Methamphetamine Fight
U.S. attorneys cite gains in reducing trafficking, use of potent drug
Washington -- Mexico, China and the United States are working together to stop the use of methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant drug that has been called one of America’s most serious drug problems, two U.S. attorneys from the Department of Justice tell America.gov.
The attorneys said a stepped-up campaign against the drug is reaping success, due to help from Mexico where methamphetamine (commonly called meth) is manufactured before it is shipped by drug traffickers to the United States.
U.S. officials say methamphetamine use by U.S. youth is down by 64 percent from 2001 levels.
McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said the Mexican government has “already made great strides in our efforts against methamphetamine.”
The Mexican government is cracking down on Mexican clandestine laboratories engaged in the manufacturing of meth, a process that is called "cooking" the drug, he said. The United States is seeing the benefits of the Mexico’s’ efforts in a reduced meth supply coming from Mexico into America, said Scott.
A corollary to the reduced supply is an increase in its market price. The price of a gram of meth has increased over the last year by about 85 percent, he said. In the Modesto, California, area, which Scott called “literally ground zero” for the U.S. problem with meth, the price for the drug has tripled from about $8,000 a pound to about $25,000 a pound. Meth, once considered cheap, now can cost more than cocaine. Scott termed that development “stunning.”
Scott chairs the advisory board of the National Methamphetamine Chemicals Initiative, which works to diminish the availability of chemicals used to manufacture meth. The board arranged a May 7 conference in St. Louis where the United States, Mexico and China signed a statement pledging cooperation on fighting meth and the precursor drugs -- pseudoephedrine and ephedrine -- used to make it.
Law enforcement officials from Germany and India, countries that along with China are leading exporters of those precursor chemicals, also attended the St. Louis conference. Officials from Canada also participated in the conference.
Scott said Mexico’s motivation in the anti-meth fight is that the Mexicans see it “as part of the bigger issue that they’re wrestling with … in really aggressively going after the [Mexican drug] cartels, to knock them out of business.”
China has indicated it wants to help other nations deal with their meth problem, according to Scott. He added that the Chinese were invited to the St. Louis conference to encourage them to “become better international partners in controlling where the pseudoephedrine” is being transported.
Scott said he was struck by China’s presentation in St. Louis, which discussed “all the horrible things” associated with meth cooking, such as the fact the chemicals used in making the drug are volatile and the byproducts very toxic.
At the St. Louis conference, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey presented Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora with an award for his country’s contributions to reducing the meth problem.
Mukasey said at the conference that the “successes we’ve had in the fight against methamphetamine are due to our combined efforts -- here and abroad -- to target meth at every level of production and distribution.”
A VIEW FROM AMERICA’S MIDWEST
Joe Stecher, U.S. attorney for Nebraska, said his state has “seen a tremendous [benefit] already from the policies” of the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderón.
Nebraska, where meth use was a growing epidemic, now is seeing a “huge” drop in the quality and quantity of the drug, while its price has soared two to three times higher than a year ago, Stecher said.
Stecher said he very much appreciated the candor of the Chinese officials at the St. Louis conference, who recognized the scope of their pseudopedrine production and the growing problem it represents.
Nebraska recently has experienced a reduction in meth use by young people, which Stecher attributed to higher prices and better education efforts about the hazards of the drug. Low prices had allowed “anyone who was silly enough” to ignore the dangers to experiment with the drug, he said, but the current price of $100-$150 per gram “takes a lot of people out of the market.”
Stecher said he attributed the price rise for meth almost exclusively to the cooperation of Mexico and the Calderón government.
More information about the St. Louis conference is available on the Department of Justice Web site.
See also “U.S. Calls for Continued International Cooperation in Narcotics.”
