The changing meth culture
By Nicole Stricker • nstricker@postregister.com
Narcotics officers say methamphetamine has been a problem in Idaho Falls for about 10 years. But according to veteran addicts, they’re only half right.
A highly pure, smokeable form called crystal meth (also “ice,” “glass” or “tina”) started coming into southeast Idaho in the late-1990s. But longtime addicts had been using a cheaper powdered form of meth (“crank”) since the early 1980s.
Back then, crank was popular at certain truck stops and in outlaw motorcycle gangs. Bikers and truckers would bring the drug in from Boise or California. Truckers used the upper to get through long hauls. Some farmers took it to help them through the harvest.
Crank was cheap, smelly and yellow, tan or pink. People usually snorted it because many thought it was too impure to smoke or shoot. It was a rough drug for a rough crowd.
Then a more pure, “upscale,” crystallized form started showing up in the late-1990s. The glasslike crystals were painful to snort — people preferred to smoke it. The needle-users liked crystal because it was more potent and didn’t have as many impurities for them to filter out before they injected it.
Drugs get into the bloodstream faster when they’re smoked or injected into a vein. So when crystal meth arrived — and smoking replaced snorting as the delivery method of choice — addiction skyrocketed.
By 2001 or 2002, the eastern Idaho meth culture had changed compared to the early 1990s. Crank was nearly impossible to find. People who had never heard of crank or been too intimidated to try it were experimenting with crystal meth. Users spanned every age, race, class and profession — professionals, working class, homeless, teens.
The large number of people smoking and shooting such a potent drug intensified the scene. Crystal meth fostered rage, paranoia and violence. Turf wars broke out. Dealers started packing guns and taking hostages to settle drug debts.
Addicts tried to make crystal in homegrown labs. First-time users were 15 and 16 instead of 19 or 20.
Today, many local labs have shut down and most crystal comes in from Salt Lake City and through Mexican cartels. Meth remains Idaho’s single largest illegal drug problem.
Lawmakers also are trying to crack down on the problem by restricting over-the-counter sales of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, a crucial ingredient
Source: Narcotics detectives from the Idaho Falls Police Department and the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office and recovering addicts from Bonneville County Drug Court.
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