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Meth makes comeback, could be America's next drug epidemic

Meth from Mexican cartels is pouring across the border in huge amounts.
A Minnesota business owner is jailed after an employee told authorities he paid his workers their bonuses by supplying them with methamphetamine. Thinkstock

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – While opioids continue to dominate headlines across the country, there’s another drug epidemic threatening communities across the country.

Authorities say methamphetamine is making a big comeback, and it’s different from the home-cooked meth that swept the nation a decade ago. These days, meth from Mexican cartels pours across the border in huge amounts.

“Individuals that were cooking it themselves, those ‘one-pot cooks’ as they called it, they’re not doing that anymore,” said Maj. Robert Mailhiot, head of St. Petersburg police's vice and narcotics unit. “They’ve really, really decreased because methamphetamine’s coming out of Mexico, they have super labs there and it’s very cheap and they’re flooding the market with it, and we’re definitely seeing it here in Pinellas County.”

Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Act in 2005, which puts pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in meth, behind the counter in pharmacies. It also limits customers to buying 7.5 grams of pseudoephedrine within a 30-day period and required pharmacies to track sales.

The effect was a massive reduction in domestic, home-based meth labs.

“We used to see individuals go into drug stores and purchasing pseudoephedrine. Well, the lawmakers got involved and they made it so you could only purchase so much a day, so much a month,” added Mailhiot.

That’s when Mexican drug cartels stepped in to fill the void, and they’re looking to expand into new markets along the U.S. East Coast, with massive amounts of meth produced on a large scale.

“It’s more potent, it’s less expensive and you’ll see there’s an increase across the country with that,” said Mailhiot. “That could easily be another epidemic in this country because there’s so much of it coming through right now.”

Methamphetamine deaths in Florida have risen sharply in the last few years, from 88 in 2014 to 156 in 2015 and 327 in 2016, according to statistics from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.

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