The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth

by Sam Quinones

With labs popping up everywhere, a pound of meth fell below $1,000 for the first time on US streets—a 90 percent drop from a decade earlier in many areas. Yet traffickers’ response to tumbling prices was to increase production. Producers were independent, so each started more labs, hoping to earn with, say, five labs what he had been making with two when prices were higher. The chemicals they needed were flowing abundantly through Mexico’s Pacific Coast ports. Authorities raiding meth labs found tons of crystal meth stashed away by owners who, like brokers of any commodity, were presumably waiting for the price to rise. Meanwhile, the competition among producers drove meth purity to record highs. Pot was also part of this story. Marijuana was the gateway drug for Mexican traffickers. They learned the drug business smuggling weed beginning in the 1960s and it lifted many of them from poverty. They could depend on it to sell, year in and year out, no matter what harder drug was in fashion. Yet as American states legalized marijuana, Mexican pot revenue faltered. Many switched to making meth and found it liberating. Marijuana took months to grow, and was bulky and could rot. These traffickers were rancheros who bridled at working for others, but had few connections to move their product to the border. Thus, traffickers higher up the chain dictated the prices they paid to farmers. Exploiting pot growers “is how [certain traffickers] got big and stayed big,” said the Sinaloan d...