Restriction of Drug Precursors Showing Success

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 16, 2016 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News, Synthetic Drugs | Comments are off for this article

When methamphetamine use began to take over the country it took a while for government agencies to implement restrictions on the chemicals needed to manufacture the dangerous drug. But, eventually, pharmacies throughout the country began requiring ID to purchase Sudafed, an important ingredient in making meth. Certain cleaning supplies, also part of the recipe, were also placed behind locked cabinets, deterring addicts from purchasing large quantities.

So, methamphetamine stopped being produced in large batches in the United States. But in order to satisfy the demands of the addicts, Mexican drug cartels began funding businesses in Mexico. These businesses started to manufacture and smuggle in all the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine. With cooperation from the Mexican government, officials were able to shut most of these facilities down. The coca plant is another item that requires chemical processing in order to turn it into a drug – cocaine. These restrictions by U.S. and Mexican officials have also impacted cocaine manufacturers.

Now that these restrictions have been in place for some times it can be determined how effective they were at curbing the methamphetamine problem in the United States. According to researchers at the University of Arizona, these restrictions helped lower the number of people addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine. Data shows a 35% decrease in methamphetamine use over the last year. Cocaine abuse has also dropped significantly, by 32%.

“Strategies directed toward individual users – information campaigns and direct medical care, for example – have not yet full addressed the public health problem of cocaine and methamphetamine misuse. Additional approaches are needed. Chemical controls are relatively inexpensive. And there’s room to improve them through better international cooperation,” explained Dr. James Cunninhgam, a social epidemiologist at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine.

When officials can cut off, or minimize the supply of illicit drugs it allows addicts to get the help they desperately need. When the drugs are harder to obtain it makes it easier for family and loved ones to encourage treatment. Treatment often becomes easier to accept when it is more difficult to obtain the drugs.

More Problems With Online Sales of Illegal Drugs

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on October 5, 2014 under Addiction Trends | Comments are off for this article

In the past, Fed Ex and Amazon have been called out for allowing vendors to utilize corporate services to sell illegal drugs to addicts. Ebay is the newest online business that is being connected to the sale of illegal drugs, likely from overseas.

Since companies like Amazon and Ebay do not have a physical store, they contract with vendors to provide a platform for the sale of the items, and those vendors are generally responsible for shipping out the items themselves. Due to this arrangement, the contracts that the vendors sign protect Ebay from getting in trouble if the items are illegal or if they don’t match the description. Due to this protection, businesses like Ebay are less concerned about checking the legitimacy of the vendors or their goods.

Buying drugs online is not a new thing. Addicts simply go to websites like these and others to locate drugs for sale. Purchasing the drugs can unfortunately be relatively easy, and the addicts receive the drugs in the mail. This process may become more difficult as FedEx, one of the biggest delivery companies in the United States, is now under federal indictment due to the fact that they continue to deliver packages that are suspected to contain drugs. The government had warned FedEx over and over again that they were likely transporting drugs, but they refused to change their practices. Now it looks like they will finally make an attempt to stop these shipments.

As the public becomes more aware of the practices of companies like Amazon and Ebay, many wonder what can be done to stop the online sale of illegal drugs. In order to effectively stop the sale of drugs on the internet through major corporations a few policy changes need to occur. These companies need to establish policies that require them to know who is selling what on their sites and put the safety of the general public ahead of their profit margins. If they find that someone is attempting to sell illegal drugs they need to eliminate that item from the site and immediately report it to the authorities.