From The Oregonian, October 4, 2004
This series of articles, written largely by Steve Suo, illuminated and encouraged Oregon’s legal strategy toward addiction which uses institutional punishment approach versus a medical approach which might offer an individual’s recovery as a primary goal. As of Spring of 2011, Oregon’s strategy has had no affect on the number of arrests or convictions for drug possession or distribution, and has resulted in thousands of deaths, and billions of misspent tax dollars.
Day 1 – Invisible victories. The Achilles’ heel of the meth trade goes unrecognized.
Day 1 – Superlabs – Hidden powerhouses underlie meth’s ugly spread
Day 1 – Inside a superlab (PDF)
Day 1 – Home meth labs and superlabs compared (PDF)
Day 1 – Invisible victories – photo gallery (below)
Day 2 – Lobbyists and loopholes. Attempts to curtail sales of the two essential ingredients to make meth are hamstrung by lobbyists.
Day 2 – Lobbyists and loopholes – photo gallery
Day 3 – Token deterrent.
Day 3 – Token deterrent – photo gallery
Day 4 – Shelved solutions.
Day 4 – Shelved solutions – photo gallery
Day 5 – Child of the epidemic.
Day 5 – Child of the epidemic – photo gallery
READ – Letter of the law becomes law enforcement by letter, Oregonian
LISTEN – Interview with a meth addict – Steve Suo interviews E. J. Mabazzaa, a recovering meth user, at a rehab center in the Philippines.
WATCH – Special Report – Inside the superlab . Convicted drug trafficker Alex Hanson gives a tour of the abandoned house near Vancouver, B.C., where he says he worked with the crew of a methamphetamine superlab last spring. (12/2/06
GRAPHIC: Regional bias – meth versus cocaine (PDF) The politics of methamphetamine have been shaped by geography.
GRAPHIC: How legislation changed meth purity (PDF) The methamphetamine supply is uniquely susceptible to disruption by government, as revealed by changes in the drug’s purity over the past two decades.
GRAPHIC: Federal cases show shifting ingredients (PDF) The number of people charged with ephedrine smuggling or trafficking quarterly peaked in 1995, tapering off as tighter regulation of the meth ingredient drove traffickers to pseudoephedrine.
GRAPHIC: Meth abuse drops after restrictions on chemical ingredients (PDF) The two major declines in meth purity were matched by falling meth abuse. The chart shows three indicators: meth possession arrests; meth rehab patients; and meth-related traumas and overdoses.
GRAPHIC: Meth-related crimes drop after restrictions on chemical ingredients (PDF) In Oregon, police say identity theft, which often appears in crime reports as forgery or fraud, is overwhelmingly committed by meth users. These indicators also fell during periods when meth purity was falling.
GRAPHIC: Meth potency drops after restrictions on chemical ingredients (PDF) The chart shows the purity of meth, or how much the drug is diluted with additives.
GRAPHIC: The spread of meth (PDF) Methamphetamine abuse, as measured by the number of people entering rehab centers, spread eastward during the past decade while intensifying in the West.
GRAPHIC: Inside a superlab (PDF) Contrary to popular belief, most meth users do not operate meth labs. An estimated 80 percent of the U.S. supply comes instead from organized drug cartels, which manufacture meth for national distribution in a small number of massive California “superlabs.”
GRAPHIC: Home meth labs and superlabs compared (PDF)
Academic studies consulted, by topic
A. The demand for addictive drugs, economic studies
Becker, Gary S., and Murphy, Kevin M. “A Theory of Rational Addiction,” Journal of Political Economy, 96 (August 1988): 675-700.
Becker, G., Grossman, M., and Murphy, K. “An Empirical Analysis of Cigarette Addiction,” American Economic Review 84 (June 1994): 396-418.
Caulkins, Jonathan. “Estimating Elasticities of Demand for Cocaine and Heroin with DUF Data,” working paper, Carnegie Mellon University, August 1995.
Caulkins, Jonathan. “Drug Prices and Emergency Department Mentions for Cocaine and Heroin,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 91, No. 9 (September 2001): 1446-1448.
Grossman, Michael and Chaloupka, Frank J. “The Demand for Cocaine by Young Adults: A Rational Addict ion Approach.” Journal of Health Economics 17 (August 1998): 427-474.
Rhodes, William, Johnston, Patrick, Han, Song, McMullen, Quentin, and Hozik, Lynne. “Illicit Drugs: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply.” Paper prepared for National Institute of Justice, Jan. 10, 2002. Link: http://www.abtassoc.com/reports/20008744845311.pdf
Van Ours, Jan C. “The Price Elasticity of Hard Drugs: The Case of Opium in the Dutch East Indies, 1923-1938.” Journal of Political Economy, 103 (April 1995): 261-279.
B. The demand for addictive drugs, animal studies
Bickel, Warren K., DeGrandpre, R.J., and Higgins, Stephen T. “The Behavioral Economics of Concurrent Drug Reinforcers: A Review and Reanalysis of Drug Self-Administration Research,” Psychopharmacology 118 (1995): 250-259.
Rowlett, J.K. “A Labor-Supply Analysis of Cocaine Self-Administration Under Progressive-Ratio Schedules: Antecedents, Methodologies and Perspectives,” Psychopharmacology 153 (Dec. 12, 2000): 1-16.
Mantsch, John R., Ho, Ann, Schlussman, Stefan D., and Kreek, Mary. “Predictable Individual Differences in the Initiation of Cocaine Self-Administration by Rats Under Extended-Access Conditions Are Dose-Dependent,” Psychopharmacology 157 (August 2001): 31-39.
Campbell, U.C., Thompson, Sherry S., and Carroll, Marilyn E. “Acquisition of Oral Phencyclidine (PCP) Self-Administration in Rhesus Monkeys: Effects of Dose and an Alternative Non-Drug Reinforcer,” Psychopharmacology 137 (May 5, 1998): 132-138.
Carroll, M.E. and Lac, Sylvie T. “Acquisition of IV Amphetamine and Cocaine Self-Administration in Rats as a Function of Dose,” Psychopharmacology 129 (Feb. 19, 1997): 206-214.
Donny, Eric C., Caggiula, A..R., Mielke, Michelle M., Jacobs, Kimberly S., Rose, Christine, and Sved Alan F. “Acquisition of Nicotine Self-Administration in Rats: the Effects of Dose, Feeding Schedule, and Drug Contingency,” Psychopharmacology 136 (Feb. 25, 1998): 83-90.
Woolverton, William L., English, Justin A., and Weed, Michael R. “Choice Between Cocaine and Food in a Discrete-Trials Procedure in Monkeys: A Unit Price Analysis,” Psychopharmacology 133 (1997): 269-274.
C. Drug abuse and crime
Boyum, David A., and Kleiman, Mark A.R. “Substance Abuse Policy from a Crime Control Perspective,” in the book “Crime,” edited by James Q. Wilson and Joan Petersilia (2001) 2nd edition.
Mocan, H. Naci, and Corman, Hope. “An Economic Analysis of Drug Use and Crime,” Journal of Drug Issues 28 (1998): 613-629.
Desimone, Jeff. “The Effect of Cocaine Prices on Crime,” Economic Inquiry 39 (Oct. 1, 2001): 627.
Corman, Hope, and Mocan, H. Naci. “A Time-Series Analysis of Crime, Deterrence, and Drug Abuse in New York City,” The American Economic Review 90 (June 2000): 584-604.
Donnelly, Neil, Weatherburn, Don, and Chilvers, Marilyn. “The Impact of the Australian Heroin Shortage on Robbery in NSW,” New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Brief, March 2004. See www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au.
Smithson, M., McFadden, M., Mwesigye, S-E, and Casey T. “The Impact of Illicit Drug Supply Reduction on Health and Social Outcomes: The Heroin Shortage in the Australian Capital Territory,” Addiction 99 (March 2004): 340-348.
D. Impact of federal policies on the drug supply
Abt Associates Inc. “Measuring the Deterrent Effect of Enforcement Operations on Drug Smuggling, 1991-1999,” prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, August 2001.
Reuter, Peter and Kleiman, Mark. “Risks and Prices: An Economic Analysis of Drug Enforcement,” Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, by N. Morris and M. Tonry (ed). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986.
Rydell, Peter C., Caulkins, Jonathan P., and Everingham, Susan S. “Enforcement or Treatment? Modeling the Relatively Efficacy of Alternatives for Controlling Cocaine,” Operations Research 44 (September-October 1996): 687-695.
E. Impact of chemical controls on meth use
Cunningham, James K., and Liu, Lon-Mu. “Impacts of federal ephedrine and pseudoephedrine regulatins on Methamphetamine-related Hospital Admissions,” Addiction 98 (September 2003): 1229-1237.
Web links
Title: Drug Availability Estimates in the United States
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy, December 2002
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Provides estimates of the total supply of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine as well as the amount of diverted pseudoephedrine.
Title: Chemical Diversion and Synthetic Drug Manufacture
Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Criminal Analysis Branch and Drug Enforcement Administration, Intelligence Division, June 2001.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: An early assessment of the smuggling of pseudoephedrine to the United States via Canada.
Title: Methamphetamine Precursor Chemical Control in the 1990s
Source: Gene R. Haislip, Drug Enforcement Administration, January 1996.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Written by Gene Haislip at a time when ephedrine regulations were first having an effect and the switch to cooking meth with pseudoephedrine was underway.
Title: Chemical Handlers Manual: A Guide to Chemical Control Regulations
Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, June 2002.
Description: The DEA’s own description of how it regulates the chemical trade.
Title: National Drug Threat Assessment 2004
Source: National Drug Intelligence Center, April 2004.
Web version: Click here
Description: Includes a chapter on methamphetamine that describes the current state of knowledge about patterns of methamphetamine production and distribution in the United States.
Title: US Patent 6,495,52: (-)-Pseudoephedrine as a sympathomimetic drug
Source: U.S. Patent Office, December 2002.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Warner-Lambert Co.¹s patent on “minus” pseudoephedrine, a form that the patent claims has fewer side effects than current versions on the market and cannot be converted to methamphetamine.
Title: Primary Methamphetamine/Amphetamine Treatment Admissions 1992-2002
Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, September 2004.
Web version: Click here
Description: Describes the long-term growth in the number of rehab patients listing methamphetamine as their primary drug of abuse.
Title: Amphetamine and Methamphetamine Emergency Department Visits 1995-1992
Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, July 2004.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Provides evidence of the eastward spread of methamphetamine abuse based on emergency room admissions for overdoses and traumas.
Title: Measuring the Deterrent Effect of Enforcement Operations on Drug Smuggling, 1991-1999.
Web version: Click here (4.70 MB PDF)
Description: Analyzes effect of major DEA operations against cocaine smuggling on cocaine prices in the United States. Finds a measurable impact for some but not others.
Title: Illicit Drugs: Price Elasticity of Demand and Supply
Source: Abt Associates Inc., February 2000.
Web version: Click here (PDF)
Description: Measures responsiveness of drug users to price changes in heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine.
Title: The impact of the Australian heroin shortage on robbery in NSW
Source: New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Report a decline in robberies in New South Wales following a recent shortage of heroin there.
Title: National Drug Control Strategy, FY2005 Budget Summary
Source: White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, March 2004
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Line by line breakdown of what the federal government spends on drug policies, from treatment to the State Department’s Andean Counterdrug Initiative in Latin America.
Title: Stronger Crackdown Needed on Clandestine Laboratories Manufacturing Dangerous Drugs
Source: Comptroller General of the United States, November 1981.
Web version: Click here (PDF)
Description: A 1981 critique of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s efforts to combat synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, including control of chemical ingredients.
Title: Review Of The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Control Of The Diversion Of Controlled Pharmaceuticals
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, September 2002
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Internal Justice Department critique of how the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration deals with illicit diversion of pharmaceutical drugs and of chemical drug ingredients from the legitimate marketplace.
Title: Drug Control: DEA’s Strategies and Operations in the 1990s
Source: U.S. General Accounting Office, July 1999.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: A 1999 audit that found the DEA had failed to implement performance targets that would allow anyone to assess its progress against illegal drugs.
Title: Report of the Drug Control Research, Data and Evaluation Committee
Source: White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Discusses the types of data that are available to evaluate the changing scope of drug abuse nationally.
Title: Performance and Management Assessments, 2004
Source: White House Office of Management and Budget, 2004.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Concludes that “DEA is unable to demonstrate its progress in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the U.S.
Title: Performance and Management Assessments, 2005
Source: White House Office of Management and Budget, 2005.
Web version: Click here This link is no longer available (PDF)
Description: Finds that DEA made “progress achieving its performance goals,” but says problems remain.