You sure your not talking about methcathinone? It¨s basically oxygenated (pseudo)ephedrine whereas meth is reduced form of (pseudo)ephedrine. It's super easy to make with right chemicals and there was a boom in the use of it in the 90's and 2000's in Russia and Ukrain. It's actually not bad at all, a lot weaker than meth but also very euphoric.
It cannot be cathinone because that's what you get from chewing khat leave. And it cannot be extraxted since cathinone will dimerise into a different (inacrtive chemical) as a pure form.
Methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) is the world's first internet hype drug. I doubt that's what we're talking about. It was mostly used students who mainly ordered it from cleasrnet sites which then just shipped it to wherever and whom ever.