Frighteningly strong meth has supercharged homelessness | Hacker News Reader

Frighteningly strong meth has supercharged homelessness

nymag.com

28 pointsbkohlmann14 comments

Street meth is often quite pure (>90% is not unusual) and this has been true for decades. With that in mind, I can't really figure out what this alleged supermeth being referred to could be.

I think the trend here is pretty simple: high-purity crystal meth has become significantly cheaper over time, enabling people to engage in sustained binges at high doses that are both just deranging (imagine a week of no sleep) and particularly at high doses, neurotoxic. So, more meth-crazy people. Where I live, it's roughly 1/5th what it cost twenty years ago.

P2P meth

https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/p2p-meth

I've read this theory before, that the removal of ephedrine from the market has led to starting with different precursors and a more dangerous end product. It's unclear to me whether there is actually anything to this theory though.

"Frighteningly strong" is just a purposely stupid way of saying "Pure", otherwise known as won't poison you, other than the ways meth poisons you anyway.

Besides, most homeless people in my state are getting fucked over by fentanyl, not meth.

I have strangely, gotten down voted on other posts about homelessness when I bring up this fact. Living in LA, it’s plain as day, most of the tent encampments around the city are filled with addicts.

The homelessness crisis is really a drug epidemic, but not everyone seems to understand that yet I guess.

Homelessness causes meth (drug use) not the other way around. This is an oversimplification, but drug use is a coping mechanism not a cause.

There was a great article floating around around 10 years ago (can’t find it now) about being homeless for a year or so and the worst part of it (as I read it) was the HUGE stretches of time that you literally needed to kill because you don’t have access to most distractions.

Nah. The tweakers I've known started using and then became homeless. It's hard to maintain a job and be a normal member of society while being addicted to meth

You’re not wrong about the what, but the relationship between the pieces. Drug use starts as a way to to cope with something. Not fitting into society in one or more ways is the start of the process. Not drug use, it is a side effect of the process.

But like you say once started it usually spirals out of control quickly.

Why would anyone want meth that's not strong? Weak meth could be cut with anything

You’re right, but is that a real question? The people buying drugs don’t have a choice in vendor or product.

Uh, drug dealing is a very competetive field, especially as a large number of participants are "amateurs" hustling to get high themselves. Meth is rarely "recooked" or cut in the same ways as crack/powder coke/heroin, but there are generally a few sources of different stuff in any area.

As a market, yes. For an individual, not so much.

Think “market for lemons” type information problem.

Not in my experience. Most 'heads have multiple sources and know how to sniff out a new one if need be.

Fair enough. I guess that means quality isn’t a primary consideration for most of them then.

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