This article from the July/August edition of Mother Jones magazine, Merchants of Meth, includes an interesting discussion of (1) a new “cook” method for meth (“shake and bake”), (2) state laws determining whether psuedoephidrene (key meth ingredient) is on the shelves or behind the counter, and (3) the role of big pharma in affecting those laws.

I found the following statistics especially telling:

“Since the bill (making psudeoephidrene a prescription drug in Oregon again, as before 1976] became law in 2006, the number of meth labs found in Oregon has fallen 96 percent. Children are no longer being pulled from homes with meth labs, and police officers have been freed up to pursue leads instead of cleaning up labs and chasing smurfers. In 2008, Oregon experienced the largest drop in violent-crime rates in the country. By 2009, property crime rates fell to their lowest in 43 years. That year, overall crime in Oregon reached a 40-year low.“