News “New Meth” Is Nothing to Fear. It Isn’t New. It’s Just Meth.

[Landrew]

(edited by Ruc4)

“New Meth” Is Nothing to Fear. It Isn’t New. It’s Just Meth.

filtermag.org
By Claire Zagorski
1 September 2022

Excerpts:

f you’ve ever seen someone talk about “new meth” online, they were probably describing how it explained some aspect of society—encampments, mental illness—that they found distasteful. These references don’t come from a rich diversity of sources, but tend to trace back to a single source: a 2021 Atlantic article by Sam Quinones.

All meth actually has the same chemical makeup. The only difference is the production method, of which there are several. When the broader public thinks of meth, they’re probably thinking of meth derived from pseudoephedrine (Sudafed). “New meth” refers to meth derived from phenyl-2-propanone, more commonly known as P2P.

“New meth” is nothing to fear. For starters, it isn’t new at all. It emerged in the 1970s after the rescheduling of amphetamine—from Schedule III, as it orginally was under the Controlled Substances Act, up to the more highly restricted Schedule II category—created a void in the market. Production relied on phenylacetic acid and acetic acid, using a thorium dioxide catalyst. From there, a simple reductive amination reaction produces methamphetamine.

 

[S.J.B.]

It's clearly not written by an expert in chemistry -- we've done much deeper dives here on BL -- but it's good to see someone in the media (albeit, an outlet with a fairly small audience) take on that obnoxious Quinones article which gets cited as gospel by neophyte posters here all the time.