Analysis: There Is a Meth Crisis in America

Methamphetamine overdose deaths have skyrocketed in the past decade, hitting numbers unheard of during the mid-2000s meth epidemic as tens of thousands of pounds of the drug flow across the southwest border.

An analysis conducted by the Free Beacon, based on publicly available data, shows that meth-associated overdose deaths rose more than 450 percent between 2008—the trough of the last meth crisis—and 2016. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Free Beacon's analysis, that spike was instigated not by domestically produced meth, but by a surge of amphetamines trafficked by Mexican cartels into the United States.

Many Americans think of meth as a thing of the past, an early-2000s craze that gave way to the current opioid epidemic. Indeed, the number of meth overdose deaths began to spike in 2001, rising continuously until 2005.

This prompted action by Congress and state legislatures, leading to a reduction in meth overdose deaths over the next three years. Legislation targeted the supply of precursors, primarily the cold medication Sudafed. "Mom-and-pop" meth labs, keys actors in the crisis, were starved out of existence.

"Most of the methamphetamine available in the United States is produced clandestinely in Mexico and smuggled across the [Southwestern Border]," the DEA reports.

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