Pubdate: Sat, 02 Apr 2011 Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA) Copyright: 2011 North County Times Contact: http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/index.php Website: http://www.nctimes.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080 Author: Brandon Lowrey METH PRICES SHIFTING, CAUSE REMAINS UNCLEAR An Increase in Price Usually Means Lower Use Street prices for methamphetamine have shot up in San Diego County over the last year, making the illegal stimulant more expensive than the more steadily priced marijuana, cocaine or heroin, federal officials said last week. Meth's shift in price, from an average of about $10,000 per pound in 2009 to its current $18,000 per pound, hints at a disruption somewhere along the drug's supply chain, although U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials said there are too many variables to know for sure. In neighboring Riverside County, meth prices have dropped over the same period ---- to $11,000 from $13,000. The cause for the price fluctuations remains unclear, but a sustained price change might have an effect on use, according to at least one study. For every 1 percent increase in the price of methamphetamine, consumption drops 1.4 percent, according to a 2009 study by UC Santa Cruz and the RAND Corp. think tank. "The elasticity suggests that methamphetamine use is more price-sensitive than cocaine and heroin," the authors wrote. Several other studies have shown that even when meth is harder to come by, routine users are less likely to use other drugs instead. Highly addictive Methamphetamine is a highly addictive, synthetic crystalline drug made by combining chemicals found in over-the-counter drugs and other products available at many stores. It causes an intense euphoric feeling that could keep a user awake and active for several days. It also can cause severe paranoia, weight loss, strokes, heart attacks and disfigurement. Its effects last far longer than comparable stimulants such as crack cocaine. Crack lasts for a few minutes. Meth lasts for hours. Users go on days-long binges without sleep before crashing and passing out for the better part of a week. They then wake with a renewed hunger for the drug. Users have been linked to crimes ---- from violent and extreme attacks to rashes of burglaries and identity theft ---- to pay for their habit. A meth user might burn through an average of 1 or 2 grams a day, said Bob McElroy, president of the Alpha Project, a San Diego-based nonprofit that helps the homeless and has a large addiction-treatment program. He said that in his decades of experience, getting someone off methamphetamine is more difficult than treating a heroin or cocaine addict. The lasting effects are even more disturbing, McElroy said. "It fries their brains," he said. "The schizophrenia-type paranoia, it's long-lasting." The intense but unsustainable stimulation the drug provides eventually burns out users and dumps them into a deep depression, McElroy said. There are massive meth lab operations that churn out the drug by the pound, but it can also be cooked up in smaller batches in homes. San Diego County ---- particularly its eastern reaches ---- was widely considered the meth capital of the nation in the 1980s as the drug made a transition from one popular among outlaw bikers and the rural poor to a drug used by all types. McElroy said he has noticed meth becoming more scarce thanks to law enforcement efforts. But in McElroy's experience, those really hooked on the drug will find a way to pay for their fix, whether the price is on an upswing or on the decline, he said. Costs vary wildly The costs of meth and other drugs vary wildly across the nation. They have spiked and plummeted over the past several years. Even neighboring cities and counties might have staggering differences, said DEA spokeswoman Barbara Correno. "A big seizure can raise prices, a big shipment can lower them," Correno said in an email. "A crop failure or contamination of the product can raise prices. Competition between traffickers can lower prices. "That's because the drugs sell for whatever someone is willing to pay for them. It's not like OPEC, where a centralized group sets the prices for everyone and everyone has to pay that. You have many players along the supply chain, all doing deals." In the second half of 2009, a pound of methamphetamine in the city of San Diego went for $15,000 to $23,000, according to DEA data. Over the same period, a pound of meth in Orange County sold for $12,000 to $16,000, and in New York City, it went for $21,000 to $26,000. Typically when prices increase, the purity of the drug decreases as traffickers try to stretch their supply. Laws and government initiatives have driven up the drug's price and caused the production locations to bounce around ---- often to Mexico. Between 1993 and 2005, a flurry of legislation and policy changes in the United States made components of methamphetamine much more difficult to buy in bulk or over-the-counter. California added its own, slightly tighter restrictions on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine ---- common components of cold medication used to manufacture meth ---- that made them harder to buy in large numbers. Some of those efforts met short-lived success as those who make and distribute the drug adapted. In one instance that the UCSC and RAND study detailed, a 1995 law restricting the sale of over-the-counter products containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine seriously disrupted the methamphetamine trade. Immediately, the price of methamphetamine tripled and purity of the drug dropped from 90 percent to 20 percent. Meth-related arrests and hospital and treatment admissions fell dramatically. But the change didn't hold. "The price returned to its original level within four months," the study said. "Purity, hospital admissions, treatment admissions and arrests approached preintervention levels within 18 months." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.