Is Sam Quinones on meth? An investigation.
The drug reporter Sam Quinones has long trumpeted the thesis that the meth coming in from Mexico is far more potent than the US-made kind prevalent in the mid-aughts. Quinones blames homelessness and high rates of mental illness on this powerful new drug. It’s not your grandpa’s meth!
My reporting shows, furthermore, that the meth coming out of Mexico is creating harrowing symptoms of mental illness — because of chemicals in the mix or, perhaps most likely, because of the unprecedented potency with which it is hitting U.S. streets. Meth from Mexico is now a driver of mental illness and homelessness in many parts of the United States.
In the same post, published in The Washington Post Sunday, Quinones suggests the solution to the fentanyl crisis and the surge of super meth or whatever is having the US and Mexico go after the cartels to shut down production. Which begs the question, is Quinones getting high off his own supply?
There’s no doubt the fentanyl crisis is unprecedented because of how easy it is to produce and how easily it can kill. Heroin requires opium fields, so producing it is more work than fentanyl, which is synthesized in a lab with cheap crap from China. Heroin’s very unlikely to kill you in one shot. Cocaine requires cocoa fields and you have to do a lot and have a heart condition to get sick. The visible ill effects of meth could just as easily be caused by poverty. The rest of the drugs are less bad for you than alcohol.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Substance to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.