METH PRICES SHIFTING, CAUSE REMAINS UNCLEAR

An Increase in Price Usually Means Lower Use

Street prices for methamphetamine have shot up in San Diego County
over the last year, making the illegal stimulant more expensive than
the more steadily priced marijuana, cocaine or heroin, federal
officials said last week.

Meth's shift in price, from an average of about $10,000 per pound in
2009 to its current $18,000 per pound, hints at a disruption somewhere
along the drug's supply chain, although U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
officials said there are too many variables to know for sure.

In neighboring Riverside County, meth prices have dropped over the
same period ---- to $11,000 from $13,000.

The cause for the price fluctuations remains unclear, but a sustained
price change might have an effect on use, according to at least one
study.

For every 1 percent increase in the price of methamphetamine,
consumption drops 1.4 percent, according to a 2009 study by UC Santa
Cruz and the RAND Corp. think tank.

"The elasticity suggests that methamphetamine use is more
price-sensitive than cocaine and heroin," the authors wrote.

Several other studies have shown that even when meth is harder to come
by, routine users are less likely to use other drugs instead.

Highly addictive

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive, synthetic crystalline drug made
by combining chemicals found in over-the-counter drugs and other
products available at many stores.

It causes an intense euphoric feeling that could keep a user awake and
active for several days. It also can cause severe paranoia, weight
loss, strokes, heart attacks and disfigurement.

Its effects last far longer than comparable stimulants such as crack
cocaine. Crack lasts for a few minutes. Meth lasts for hours.

Users go on days-long binges without sleep before crashing and passing
out for the better part of a week. They then wake with a renewed
hunger for the drug.

Users have been linked to crimes ---- from violent and extreme attacks
to rashes of burglaries and identity theft ---- to pay for their habit.

A meth user might burn through an average of 1 or 2 grams a day, said
Bob McElroy, president of the Alpha Project, a San Diego-based
nonprofit that helps the homeless and has a large addiction-treatment
program.

He said that in his decades of experience, getting someone off
methamphetamine is more difficult than treating a heroin or cocaine
addict.

The lasting effects are even more disturbing, McElroy
said.

"It fries their brains," he said. "The schizophrenia-type paranoia,
it's long-lasting."

The intense but unsustainable stimulation the drug provides eventually
burns out users and dumps them into a deep depression, McElroy said.

There are massive meth lab operations that churn out the drug by the
pound, but it can also be cooked up in smaller batches in homes.

San Diego County ---- particularly its eastern reaches ---- was widely
considered the meth capital of the nation in the 1980s as the drug
made a transition from one popular among outlaw bikers and the rural
poor to a drug used by all types.

McElroy said he has noticed meth becoming more scarce thanks to law
enforcement efforts. But in McElroy's experience, those really hooked
on the drug will find a way to pay for their fix, whether the price is
on an upswing or on the decline, he said.

Costs vary wildly

The costs of meth and other drugs vary wildly across the nation. They
have spiked and plummeted over the past several years. Even
neighboring cities and counties might have staggering differences,
said DEA spokeswoman Barbara Correno.

"A big seizure can raise prices, a big shipment can lower them,"
Correno said in an email. "A crop failure or contamination of the
product can raise prices. Competition between traffickers can lower
prices.

"That's because the drugs sell for whatever someone is willing to pay
for them. It's not like OPEC, where a centralized group sets the
prices for everyone and everyone has to pay that. You have many
players along the supply chain, all doing deals."

In the second half of 2009, a pound of methamphetamine in the city of
San Diego went for $15,000 to $23,000, according to DEA data. Over the
same period, a pound of meth in Orange County sold for $12,000 to
$16,000, and in New York City, it went for $21,000 to $26,000.

Typically when prices increase, the purity of the drug decreases as
traffickers try to stretch their supply.

Laws and government initiatives have driven up the drug's price and
caused the production locations to bounce around ---- often to Mexico.

Between 1993 and 2005, a flurry of legislation and policy changes in
the United States made components of methamphetamine much more
difficult to buy in bulk or over-the-counter.

California added its own, slightly tighter restrictions on ephedrine
and pseudoephedrine ---- common components of cold medication used to
manufacture meth ---- that made them harder to buy in large numbers.

Some of those efforts met short-lived success as those who make and
distribute the drug adapted.

In one instance that the UCSC and RAND study detailed, a 1995 law
restricting the sale of over-the-counter products containing ephedrine
and pseudoephedrine seriously disrupted the methamphetamine trade.

Immediately, the price of methamphetamine tripled and purity of the
drug dropped from 90 percent to 20 percent. Meth-related arrests and
hospital and treatment admissions fell dramatically.

But the change didn't hold.

"The price returned to its original level within four months," the
study said. "Purity, hospital admissions, treatment admissions and
arrests approached preintervention levels within 18 months."