Availability of crystal meth in "ice/rock" form
My opinion on the availability of crystal chunky meth ("ice") is that as the bulk of it is imported, the amount on the market fluctuates heavily rather than it being in steady, constant supply.
It is no coincidence that at the same time Perth was flooded with "ice" so was Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide etc.
Now people in Perth are struggling to find any and it seems so are people on the eastern seaboard.
So assuming this "ice" is imported in massive quantities at certain times it is more similar to pills in its distribution.
Take the recent 3s. They have absolutely flooded the market Australia wide - but eventually they will run out; then there is no more; until a new shipment arrives.
The "ice" did the same thing - it was everywhere, it was essentially the same in appearance and quality, but it has now whittled away to it appears pockets of supplies. This consistency in quality is also assisted by the fact that meth in ice form, like pills, is less likely to be altered by lower rung dealers than ordinary powder meth.
I am not for one minute suggesting "ice" is always imported, nor am i suggesting it is all the same across the country. But it is a valid inference when you see huge amounts of a drug, of very similar appearance and effects, throughout the country. When supply slows in a similar fashion around the same time you can be confidently certain.
Further evidence:
- there have been a number of extremely large "ice" (later confirmed to be meth) importation busts in Australia over the last 2 years
- the appearance is very similar to what has made it here recently
- almost all persons arrested in conjunction with these hauls are SE Asian nationals
- police have only ever found one meth lab in Australia that was producing meth of high enough quality and clearly intending to perform the necessary purification steps to produce this type of very high quality methamphetamine
Alternatively generic powder/paste/gunk speed is always around, in quality and appearance of infinite variation because it is being produced locally, by many manufacturers, supplying a small area. (a few exceptions would exist that are much larger in scale)
The supply is kept relatively constant, being made as it is required and will never be the same throughout the country - not only because the manufacturers are different, but due to the hit and miss nature of these backyard meth labs they never produce exactly the same product, (that is one with the same proportions of methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine and impurities), each time they synthesise a batch.
