America's Most Dangerous Drug
Now off meth ("that's part of the parole"), the 46-year-old Ippolito says that whatever the government is doing to fight this epidemic, it's failing. He paraphrases a bit of dialogue from the movie "Traffic," in which a defiant drug dealer mocks a DEA agent about the futility of the drug war: "You think you guys are making a difference?!," Ippolito says. They had better. Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it.
WITH HILARY SHENFELD, ANDREW MURR, ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES, SARAH CHILDRESS, CATHARINE SKIPP, SUSANNAH MEADOWS, DIRK JOHNSON, JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG AND ANNE UNDERWOOD,GRAPHIC BY JOSH ULICK AND KARL GUDE
© 2005
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Member Comments
Posted By: NickSBU @ 10/08/2008 4:43:32 PM
Comment: I'm very surprised the author fails to discuss methamphetamine pill form- it seems people only discuss smoking, snorting, injecting- which is absolutely disgusting. Remember all the hype about Ecstasy in the 90's- well how come it is so hard to find pure MDMA (ecstasy) today? Hmmm, maybe because the DEA made it nearly impossible to obtain "iso-safroile"- the essential oil dervied from the Sassafrass tree- used to make escstasy- add a methyl group- and bamn- you have pharmaceutical grade MDMA (ecstasy)- and yes Ecstasy was legal till 1984- another fun fact. So what is my point? Why am I talking about Ecstasy? I am talking about it because it can no longer be found- the main ingredients are nearly impossible to obtain. Today, almost all the ecstasy pills sold on the street are 100% amphetamine or methamphetamine- because the precursors for ecstasy are so rare. The DEA has substituted one problem for another- they have swapped an ecstasy craze for a methamphetamine craze- which is far more dangerous- because ecstasy is not addictive- and methamphetamine is arguably the most addictive substance in existence. The DEA definitely slowed the manufacturing of ecstasy because the chemical process is much more complex than methamphetamine, and the ingredients are nearly impossible to obtain. Even if you can get all the ingredients, you still need a decent background in chemistry to make it. Methamphetamine is way easier to make, ingredients will always be available- people can order pseudo-ephedrine from China easily- no need to rob your local pharmacist lol. This is all so stupid- the war on one drug- led to the rise of a much more addictive and dangerous substance- thank you DEA!
Posted By: NickSBU @ 10/08/2008 4:24:48 PM
Comment: Ummm...sorry to burst your bubble- Ritalin is not methamphetamine- it is a derivative of the cocoa plant- so essentially it is an ingestible form of cocaine. A Pharmaceutical called Desoxyn is methamphetamine- and it is rarely prescribed. It is only prescribed to people who have ADD so bad it appears they are lost in space at all times. Please do your research and get your facts straight.
Posted By: tsjuonna @ 01/03/2008 4:19:49 PM
Comment: if people havent realized othas kuld truly give afukk and stop trien to point the finger for shyt they kan never fukkin fix cause even a million years from now people are still going to stop the world from going to hell we are all once just another part of what happens here on earth nuthing going to change so like black people and mexicans and chinese and every body else that makes the best of life outta of this bullshyt ass place kalled earth you just do and imma do me