Meth, dope, coke, and bud are all getting more potent, says the DEA

Could drugs be getting too poppin?

A recent report from the Drug Enforcement Administration, says that methamphetamine, cannabis, and opiates are increasing in potency.

The problem is as the potency of drugs increase more people are getting hooked. With the opiate crisis as the backdrop, we could see more drug poisoning related deaths in the near future.

To show you how serious this really is, drug poisoning deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the U.S. and have surpassed car crashes, suicide, homicide, and guns.

Meth is being sold in nearly pure form these days and there is a surplus of it. According to the DEA’s 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment, purity in 2016 was around 93% to 96% with prices at $58 per gram, indicating an oversupply.

The demand to tweak has increased. According to the Methamphetamine Strike Force 2016 Report Card, put out by the Justice Department, San Diego County saw a dramatic rise over the last five years in deaths, reported usage and reported availability related to the dangerous upper.

People are out there buggin’.

Opiates have plagued our country taking the lives of those who are tricked and hooked by the addictive effects of the drug.

Now, with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid intertwined with the heroin market, drug addicts have developed a taste for more potent illegal medicine.

The DEA reported that lab tests showed Mexican powder heroin is extremely pure, especially on the East Coast, more than the typical 40% to 50% dilution in that market.

San Diego has seen an upward rise (from 35 percent pure in 2015) in heroin potency too. The fentanyl being seized coming across the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego is typically 4% to 6% pure, already diluted considerably by the cartels, said Amy Roderick, spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

The smaller quantities being mailed from China are much purer, often 90% or higher, according to the DEA.

“The illicit fentanyl and heroin markets are so intertwined it is difficult to gauge how much heroin market share fentanyl has gained,” the DEA stated in its 2017 assessment.

You’ll never know what you are really getting. Fentanyl is easier to make than heroin and when put into the hands of amateur mixologists the concoction can be deadly.

Cocaine is coming back with a vengeance.  For the past decade or so the silky, white, powdered stimulant has remained around 45 to 49 percent purity. But, over the last year, potency of the nose candy has risen to 56 percent.

Roderick said that demand for the drug has also increased and she expects “purity to go up and prices to start back up.”

This could be due to heroin addicts being drawn to the drug. It seems as if speedballing – mixing coke and heroin – is becoming popular again, in order to combat the depressant effects of heroin.

Also, the DEA reported,

“Since 2007, average annual cocaine purity in the United States has had a relatively strong relationship with Colombian cocaine production, although the relationship between cocaine production and domestic prices is weak… This may mean other factors, including competition within drug markets and changes in the user population, have more influence on domestic prices than previously recognized.”

AHHHHHHH!

Last but not least, marijuana is going to get us more cooked than ever before. According to drug seizure data tracked by the University of Mississippi’s Potency Monitoring Program,

“Traditional marijuana, the leafy kind, averaged a THC potency of 11% in 2015 — three times the amount in 1995. The highest level of THC — the component that creates a high — tested was 37 percent.”

Concentrated bud like hash oil will also get you dangerously shmacked averaging around 56 percent in purity back in 2015. The seizure data noted that some hash oil seizures tested above 90 percent potency.

The LA Times reported that experts are warning,

“Potential users in states where marijuana is legal need to remember that this isn’t the same weed they smoked in college.”

Better be careful and don’t sleep on the dankness of your nugs. You don’t want to find yourself in a weed coma.