Another industry moves south
At a Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing yesterday, DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] officials said that restrictions on pseudoephedrine purchases dramatically declined after the Legislature required stores to keep the product behind the counter in 2005.
But a reduction in domestic production doesn’t mean demand for meth has declined, just that the supply is coming from elsewhere – mostly from Mexico. According to the Brownsville Herald (“Officials fear new meth epidemic after record setting bust,” June 28), police recently captured a 211 pound shipment of meth heading north from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley, spotlighting an ironic trend where Mexican cartels have become the primary beneficiaries of the new law
Mexico has been closing down meth manufacturing plants, and trying to control the import of pseudoephenidrine, but apparently, just making a substance illegal — or even using police to stop the manufacture of it — does nothing to control demand. It does, however, create a demand for police agencies, which seems to be the whole point.
If “drug abuse” is an issue, the U.S. will just have to try something else.
mexfiles.net 