SV CHAT: Is meth and math the real culprit in homelessness surge? Author examines shifting drug trade

While tens of thousands continue to die annually from opioid overdoses, best-selling author Sam Quinones says that another, potentially more devastating addiction epidemic is underway in America, threatening to exact a profound economic and human cost on America.

The epidemic, says the UC Berkeley grad, centers on a potent new form of methamphetamine. As with past drug crises, the spread of P2P methamphetamine across America is fueled by economic forces, as Quinones write in his new book, “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.” In this ever-evolving drug trade, traffickers seek out innovations in technology, manufacturing and distribution to skirt law enforcement and maximize profits.

But this booming new meth industry has consequences never seen before. Among other things, Quinones controversially argues that the widespread availability of P2P meth has driven growing numbers of people living into homeless encampments across the United States, including in the Bay Area and Quinones’ hometown of Los Angeles.

Unlike the earlier “party drug” meth made with ephedrine, the ingredient in cold medicine, this more toxic version, made with widely available industrial chemicals, rapidly causes psychosis, paranoia and other schizophrenia-like symptoms that rob users of basic instincts for survival. It essentially transforms users into real-life “walking dead,” who only want to be in places where the meth is available, he adds.

“To me, tent encampments seem like meth colonies,” said Quinones. “These are places where you can hide away from the world, but you’re near the dope because everyone has it.”

Advocates for the homeless have said Quinones’ statements ignore data that shows that skyrocketing housing costs are the no. 1 reason that an increasing number of people are forced to live on the streets.

But as much as Quinones has been criticized for oversimplifying the issue of homelessness or pushing  a sensationalist tale of the next “super drug,” even a critical Washington Post review said the former Los Angeles Times journalist is “our best big-picture analyst of America’s markets for addictive drugs.”  The Post also said Quinones, who first covered the crack epidemic for the Stockton Record in the late 1980s, offers a compelling look at recent shifts in the drug market – “from poppy-based heroin to the much stronger laboratory-based fentanyl, and from ephedrine-based methamphetamine to a mass-producible P2P version.

Quinones’ 2015 best-seller, “Dreamland,” won a National Book Critics Circle Award for helping Americans understand the link between the painkiller prescription boom and traffickers fueling heroin abuse. With “The Least of Us,” Quinones introduces people to the consumer pipeline for P2P meth, which he said is leading to new levels of despair. Here he talks about that pipeline.

When did ephedrine-based meth become popular?

The previous manufacturers of methamphetamine were Hells Angels and biker gangs.  They were using a method that was very complicated and smelly. The ephedrine method was in all respects more superior and efficient. (Mexican traffickers) began to make it in a way that industrialized it.

But at some point, did authorities start cracking down on ephedrine being imported?

Around 2005 or 2006, they were reducing the amount of ephedrine they’d allow in the country. That really pushed the trafficking world to switch to a method using a precursor called phenyl-2-propanone, which is made with chemicals that are mostly legal, industrial, accessible and cheap. They also are very, very toxic.

By 2017, (P2P meth) is in the Midwest. In 2018 and 2019, it’s up in New England. All of this is possible because traffickers have an unlimited amount of chemicals coming through the Western ports of Mexico. Traffickers have been able to cover the country with meth, as they have done with fentanyl. This is the era of synthetic drugs.

You talk about how, as the price of meth has gone way down, it has become almost as widely available as fast food. How did one of your sources, an expert in the science of habit, say that feeds people’s addiction?

I think that’s key to the marketing of fast food (and other potentially addictive products like porn, gambling, social media). You always want people to get easy access, so there’s no “friction” to people’s use. I think, consciously or not, the trafficking world in Mexico has achieved something like that, with fentanyl and methamphetamine. Through the massive supplies of these drugs, they have reduced “the friction” to the use of those drugs.

Your new book has become controversial because you argue that the availability of P2P meth coincides with the rise homelessness in cities across the country. How would you say that the experience of being on P2P meth adds to that?

From my reporting, ephedrine-based meth is a party drug. You could be sociable and up for days. Over time, you’d see a decline. The P2P-based meth is dramatically different. Use can be accompanied by a very severe, rapid onset of the symptoms of schizophrenia. It drives people mad, and they can very quickly become homeless and at home in tent encampments.

Do have data that supports the impact of P2P addiction on homelessness?

This is street reporting. Nobody has studied this in any depth. Everyone is so focused on housing, that we’re not paying attention to the way drugs on the street have radically changed.

What do you say to the pushback from experts who say the main driver of homelessness is the lack affordable housing?