15 Tons and What Do You Get?
This week Mexican drug warriors are bragging about a record seizure of methamphetamine. The New York Times describes it as "15 tons, found in pure powder form at a ranch outside Guadalajara." That supposedly amounts to "13 million doses worth $4 billion—more than double the size of all meth seizures at the Mexican border in 2011." Progress? Not really:
While the authorities proudly showed off the seizure to local reporters, the sheer size of the find set off alarm among experts and officials from the United States and the United Nations. It was a sign, they said, of just how organized, efficient at manufacturing and brazen Mexico’s traffickers had become even after expanded efforts to dismantle their industry.
"The big thing it shows is the sheer capacity that these superlabs have in Mexico," said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. "When we see one lab with the capability to produce such a mass tonnage of meth, it begs a question: What else is out there?”...
"It's important to keep the seizure in perspective," said Eric Olson, a security expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "It's huge. Eye-popping. But seizures, even huge ones, don’t generally change the demand for the drug in the long run. If a seizure of this magnitude raises the street price, consumption may go down for a time, but it is only a matter of time until the market adjusts and the supply comes back up."
Those Mexican superlabs got a boost from the U.S. government's restrictions on retail sales of cold and allergy medications containing pseudoephedrine, a meth precursor. That policy inconvenienced people with colds and allergies, hurt domestic mom-and-pop labs, shipped meth jobs across the border, and encouraged a shift to a more dangerous production method here in the U.S. But it had no discernible impact on meth consumption. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, meth use by Americans 12 or older has been flat or falling since 2002, with the exception of a spike in 2006, the year the federal restrictions took effect. Numbers for high school seniors from the Monitoring the Future Study show a similar pattern, but with no uptick in 2006. Yet back in 2008 Bush administration drug czar John Walters was claiming (per A.P.'s paraphrase) that "laws restricting the sale of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine...and efforts to thwart drug trafficking from Mexico have disrupted the market for meth."
No matter. Ever-bigger seizures, indicating utter failure, only mean drug warriors must redouble their efforts.
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Mexicans are taking all of our meth jobs from hard-working Americans. It's time for American workers in the meth industry to unionize and place high tariffs on imported meth in order to keep these job in America. I think a bailout for the US meth industry might be in order too.
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I agree.
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bailout? check
bailed out from jail
that is all
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"When we see one lab with the capability to produce such a mass tonnage of meth, it begs a question: What else is out there?”...
Begging the question does not work that way!
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It does at the DEA.
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Thank you. It doesn't beg the question, it poses the question.
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Poseurs can be choosers.
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When is Breaking Bad coming back?
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After I take care of these Mexican fucks trying to get their crappy ass product on my turf.
Btw, I love this whole Reason site. My old coworker Gale turned me onto it.
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I would have liked to have seen a subplot where Gale shows up on law enforcement's radar for expressing anti-government sentiments before he shows up for his illegal drug activity.
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*gives Bee Tagger a knowing nod*
Have no fear, citizen...
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This bust is actually a preview for Season 5, further blurring the line between reality and fantasy.
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So Jesse's branching into pink and white....RED. WHITE and BLUE meth!
USA! USA! USA!!
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nuke the pyramids from mars!!1!111
fuck yaaaaaaUSA USA USA11!!1
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This summer, I believe. This will be the last season.
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"The big thing it shows is the sheer capacity that these superlabs have in Mexico," said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration
What differentiates a SUPER lab from a run of the mill trailer meth lab?
"When we see one lab with the capability to produce such a mass tonnage of meth, it begs a question: What else is out there?”...
I don't think you understand how "begging the question" works, Rusty.
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In fairness, most people don't know how to use "begging the question" properly. It's a pet peeve of mine, but it's a battle I'm losing, I think.
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I think that literally begs the question, Rev....
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What differentiates a SUPER lab from a run of the mill trailer meth lab?
The same thing that differentiates Super Mercado from supermarket.
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It's bigger and better organized. More of a business venture and less of a hobby.
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The difference between the equipment and product in the first episode of BB vs. the last one.
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The same thing that differentiates a Super Committee from a regular committee.
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So, a superlab is intended to provide cover for totally dodging an issue?
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A $4 billion meth bust - I suppose this kind of thing might have something to do with why Guadalajara and the surrounding areas have been going to hell over the last year or two.
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If a seizure of this magnitude raises the street price, consumption may go down for a time, but it is only a matter of time until the market adjusts and the supply comes back up."
Give the man a prize...he understands the basics of capitalism. Now if only he could continue that line of thought to it's next logical conclusion.
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We should feel sorry for those poor "mom and pop" meth lab operations? Cry me a river...
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You seem to have missed the point.
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By a very long shot.
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It's still harder to buy decongestant than it is to vote.
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have we won the pharmacy war yet tim?
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DOn't be a pill.
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+1 - well done, Urine!
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"...meth use by Americans 12 or older"
How shitty is your life at 12 that you use meth
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I had to work nights.
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It happens to the best of us.
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I was diagnosed with ADD.
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I'm going to have that (admittedly great) song stuck in my head all day now.
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Prohibition laws - no matter how vile the substance - will never, never work. But of course these laws are not in place for public safety.
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Are you saying that this time they actually took our jerbs?
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Well, the Mexican Army is sure going to be more productive for the time being...
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what? well shoot me in the head
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No, thank you. Fifteen tons is my limit on Schnitzengrüben.
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If inflation is going to eat my savings anyhow, I might as well take a flyer on this.
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We r in ur labz stealin ur mef
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"You're just not hitting it hard enough!"
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Meth is $300 a dose now? I'm gonna have to double my blowjob price to $10!
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""When we see one lab with the capability to produce such a mass tonnage of meth, it begs a question ..."
No, it does not. As a condition of being a spokesperson, should not a person be knowledgeable of the language?
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"13 million doses worth $4 billion"
So a dose is worth over $307? I'm not a druggie, but that seems overpriced.
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$307 a dose! If that were the case, a dose would cost more than the users trailer.
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There's a multiplier effect. See, when a person buys a $10 dose of meth, they can do $297 worth of labor.
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I have allergies. Bad. Can I have my fucking decongestants that work back.
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I've had friends caught up in the world of meth and I can tell you without a doubt that even if you sold that by the tenth of a gram you would make about $1.3 billion dollars. Wholesale, the DEA's estimate is off by at least one order of magnitude.
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Also, this whole "ONE GAZILLION DOLLARS" is nonsense anyway. Synthetic drugs are usually dirt cheap to produce, those dealers have lost a few hundred thousand at best and maybe they need a little time to get another lab running smoothly.
That is about all they lost.