> a new version of meth

There was a recent article on HN rebutting this hypothesis [1][2]. (Convincingly, in my opinion.)

TL; DR There isn't a different kind of meth as much as there is just a lot more meth.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29027284

[2] https://dynomight.net/p2p-meth/

Derek Lowe makes a good point that we're wasting everyone's time and money with useless phenylephrine and the fact that pseudoephedrine is so much better as a decongestant.

The fact is that pseudoephedrine is not only banned in the US but it is also banned in many other counties for the same reason that it's a precursor for meth.

The trouble is that banning pseudoephedrine seems to have only made matters considerably worse as I learned from this HN story a few months back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29027284

Banning pseudoephedrine has led drug cartels to ramp up production of the precursor P2P, phenylacetone, which, it seems, is a better precursor anyway. It's worth reading this story in conjunction with this one. As Lowe hints, given the circumstances, we'd be better off going back to a decongestant that actually works.

Quote from the earlier HN story:

"Meth in the US shifted to P2P synthesis between 2009 and 2012.

In the before times, meth was made with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. However, in 2006, the US banned over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine, and in 2008 Mexico banned almost all sales. In response to this, meth makers switched to a synthesis based on P2P, which can be made from many different, widely available, source chemicals."