These laboratories do not require a significant amount of equipment, so they can be small in size and thus easily concealed, which presents challenges to law enforcement agencies. When methamphetamine is smuggled into the United States in powder or liquid form, domestic conversion laboratories transform it into crystal methamphetamine. Manufacturers in Mexico are also increasingly using a different production process (called P2P which stands for pseudoephedrine’s precursor chemical, phenyl-2-propanone) to make methamphetamine that does not require pseudoephedrine. But manufacturers adapt to these restrictions via small- or large-scale "smurfing" operations: obtaining pseudoephedrine from multiple sources, below the legal thresholds, using multiple false identifications. Mexico has also tightened its restrictions on pseudoephedrine and other methamphetamine precursor chemicals. 44 Data on drug seizures indicate that most domestic production of methamphetamine is now conducted in small laboratories that make two ounces or less of the drug using common household items. In 2010, there were 15,256 domestic methamphetamine laboratory incidents-a figure that has fallen over 80 percent to 3,036 in 2017. Restrictions on the chemicals used to make methamphetamine in the United States have dramatically reduced domestic production of the drug. To curb production of methamphetamine, Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act in 2005, which requires that pharmacies and other retail stores keep logs of purchases of products containing pseudoephedrine and limits the amount of those products an individual can purchase per day.
The drug can be easily made in small clandestine laboratories, with relatively inexpensive over-the-counter ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold medications. 44 This methamphetamine is highly pure, potent, and low in price. Currently, most methamphetamine in the United States is produced by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) in Mexico.
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