A new methamphetamine – stronger and cheaper than previous versions, and referred to as Meth 2.0 – has taken hold of the United States.

As the opioid epidemic has started to show signs of subsiding across the US, the more pure version of methamphetamine which has emerged has solidified its place as America’s drug of choice, says law enforcement.

To blame are Mexican super labs run by the cartels, according to authorities, which now output 90 per cent of the meth that’s being dealt in the states, and it comes more potent, is cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.

‘It’s a lot like ‘Breaking Bad’,’ Tim Lohmar, the Prosecuting Attorney in St. Charles County, Missouri, tells The Fix, a news site on addiction and recovery, in a reference to the hit series about cancer-stricken high school teacher Walter White starting an illegal meth empire to save his family from financial ruin.

As the opioid epidemic has started to show signs of subsiding across the US, the more pure version of methamphetamine has been coming into the country from super labs in Mexico (file photo)

White used his knowledge of chemistry to produce a powerful, almost irresistible version of methamphetamine.

‘If you’re familiar with that show, you know that the purity of the methamphetamine and the ease of the mass production is what made it so addictive and relatively cheap,’ Lohmar tells the Fix.

‘These Mexican labs are making a very pure methamphetamine. It’s almost night and day different than your old-fashioned basement meth lab sort of thing, explains Lohmar.

Missouri was once considered the meth production capital of the US. Lohmar says that notoriety now applies more to the cartels, because of the efficiency of their illicit operations.

‘They can mass produce the meth and distribute it at a reduced price, which consequently has led to a rise in local consumption’, he says.

Drug dealers looking to sell more product typically have cut methamphetamine with dangerous additives.

These include lithium metal, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, as well as red phosphorus, according to American Addiction Centers, the largest network of rehab facilities nationwide.

But the methamphetamines from Mexico are being distributed in the drug’s purest form.

‘Methamphetamine sampled through the DEA profiling program is almost 97% pure, while prices remain low and stable.’ adds  William Callahan, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s St. Louis Division, quoting from the 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment.

There are still some of the small ‘shake-and-bake style labs’ across the state, but the vast majority of the methamphetamines coming into Missouri are from south of the border, reports The Fix……..more here