In the 1990s, it seemed like a meth bust was featured nearly every night on the evening news. But, then you stopped hearing so much about methamphetamine because all the media outlets began focusing on the heroin problem.
To some extent, the opioid epidemic that has taken over the United States diverted media attention away from the methamphetamine problem here in our country. In reality, California has a long history with methamphetamine production dating back to the early 1970s.
But meth production never really stopped. It just changed its production line. Much of that change can be attributed to the passage of the Combat Methamphetamine Act by Congress in 2005. That regulation limited customers to the purchase of no more than 7.5 grams of pseudophedrine in a month-long period. Drug stores began keeping meticulous records of purchasers of this meth precursor drug. Mom-and-pop stovetop meth labs shut down in part due to the increased scrutiny.
But as Nature abhors a vacuum, the Mexican drug cartels seized the day to meet the demand for meth production. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) states that today, the vast majority of the methamphetamine sold and used in the United States is manufactured in Mexico and smuggled into our country. According to The New York Times, border agents seize as much as 20 times the amount of meth that they did only 10 years earlier.
If you are facing charges of possession or distribution of methamphetamine, it’s important to focus early on your defense strategy. A meth conviction can close the door permanently to many career and life paths, so you will need to be aggressive in your efforts to avoid conviction.
