Question Why Isn't Mephedrone Popular In The US?

[Blammo]

Only reason I can see is that cocaine us easier to get here than transporting further to say europe, adding extra costs and what not. Probably also due to meth, a much longer acting drug, being incredibly cheap an accessible.

Even then, mephedrone is incredibly cheap to make, incredibly easy to make, and I think people would likely grow to like it, especially if it was cheaper than cocaine. You could probably have it for 40 a gram, 120 an eight ball, and it would be flying off the shelves.

I just don't see why any organized groups haven't started trying it out in select markets, unless it might increase competition for their other goods.

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

The main reson IMO is US customs id the best in the world and importing the precursors is expensive and dangerous. In Europe, a chinese chemical may have t pass through 10 podunct customs units, the sum of which is 1/10 as effective as US customs. Each country repeating the same small amout of security as the last, but the US has the resources to do 10 things one time instead of 1 thing 10 times. Also 4mmc celebrated research chemical status for a long time in europe and even as it decreased, every country has a different law. The way the law is writing in the US, there are no research chemicals. Any potential new active chemicals are considered analogs of already named forbifen chemnicals

 

[Blammo]

I mean, cartels could just import the finished drug, super easily, at least for a year or two. No drug detecting
dogs are trained for it.

Your theory isn't very solid, imo, as nothing of your claims prevent the importation of already illegal drugs. The laws clearly don't stop the cartels.

Imo, it's not popular because the American populace heard the media scream about "bath salts" for years, giving research chemicals a bad name, and it would compete with cocaine and meth, and is a technically unnecessary addition to the market. The money they make from mephedrone likely wouldn't be worth the money they lose from people switching from cocaine to mephedrone.

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

Well, I can get behind your theory of the media demonizing bath salts, that's true. They also demonized pcp crack and fentanyl and opiates in general, but that didn't thwart anyone. Any advertising is good advertising. So now we've debunked that as well, and we are left with? There's no shortage of drugs available in America. There's not a lot of attraction because there are known drugs with similar actions. There is no Khat cartel, the cartels run cocaine meth and heroin primarily. Maybe if the cartels started pushing bath salts, there wiould eventually be more call for them, but today, you can get your questionable drugs from an Indian operated gasstation with "NRG@" like substances "KU" and who knows what they are (we do but we are on a chemistry rebsitwe talking about it. You might bot know but) the general populace wants to have a name for what drugs they are taking. Gas station mystery fish fertilizer , or COCAINE METHAMPHETAMINE PCP HEROIN. Get it? probably not but other who read this will

 

[Blammo]

They demonize lots of drugs, but when you have "classy" cocaine, and "ruin your life powerful" meth, it's hard to justify using "zombie drug/eat someone's face" drug.

Even pcp, long demonized, sounds cool, because police said it gives you the strength of several men, makes you invincible.

Bath salts just make you into a zombie and eat someone's face. Not as cool.

Plus, I promise if you start using technical terms, most will pass. Instead of mephedrone, you say 4 methyl methcathinone, most will pass because of afore mentioned stigma, as well as ignorance.

If you can convince them to try it, they'd probably love it, especially if it is cheap.

Imo, an organized crime group would do well to spend like 20k, produce many kilos, and just give a kilo or two away to let people try it, then let the customers sprint back to them.

 

[Chmpire]

The us customs are the best in the world ? This is a joke right ? Us customs are one of the easiest to bypass.
Only issue is that shipments from China in big amounts like 100kg - multiple tons cause heavy repercussions if anything is seized that's why China doesn't like to ship there anymore unless it's absolutely needed.
Precursors for 4mmc should be no problem to send to USA anyway

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

Yes US customs are the best in the world with 10x the BUDGET of any other country. They work closely with the DEA, the only real international drug task force who have the equipment andf finances to KIDNAPa person out of countries with no extradition treaty.
One of the easiest to bypass. Right well if this customs agency has 10,000 parcels imported a day and they find drugs 500 drug packets, theyve found 5% of the mail was drugs. If the US ICE unit finds 100,000 drug packets, that represents 2 million packages checked, so its easy to conflate package numbers with sucess rate but it's a false equivelency created by your bias, not a material fact. If I want to sneak through that gate, my luck will be better if I try to blend in with the 200 party goers than if I tried to hide among 5. China has no qualms about shipping to America from a political perspective, they hold themselves, as a country, blameless for the actions of independant actors. The reason Chinamen hesitate to ship to the US is they experience higher than average loss. 10x higher. Hey don't take my word for it, there are 30 Chinese selling chemicals on this site right now today, that have a messege box. I already talked to 15 of them.

 

[Blammo]

Now, I may be wrong, but hear me out.

Customs, as in US customs, have info on "drug seizure events" im not sure what the exact definition, but I think we can assume an instance where drugs are stopped and seized.

In 2024, there were about 58.1k drug seizure events. Meanwhile, there were about 1.3 billion packages through de minimis alone that year.

That's a seizure rate of 0.0000044692307692307695%

I think that says all that needs to be said about how hard it is to detect drugs, let alone drug precursors. It doesn't account for targeting certain countries, like looking hard at China but ignoring say India, but it still paints a picture. And the best part is, this is math, using data from customs itself. About as accurate as can be.

 

[mycelium]

The fact that they in the US, people have money to spend on drugs, so you can do 125 mg or 250mg for a starting dose . I'd prefer to consume 125mg, and get a buzz I know , than do 250mg for a second rate buzz

 

[SoldadoDeDrogas]

If I had to guess, it is because it is orchestrated from the top down. Like I said before, all the dope comes in on air force one. No, not literally.
The networks and crews have been up and running for so long, they have a monopoly on it and they want to keep it that way, I am sure. This is where that "you're selling on my corner" shit takes off. The people in very high places make sure only their products are on the corner.

It depends on the crowd you are trying to sell to really. You probably won't get alot of the crack heads on board - especially the older ones because they prefer their ROA, the rush from smoking. When I was selling whatever MMCs I got at the time, everyone I knew bought it as molly. Some knew it as m1 or methylone. Alot of the people who were using it ,come to find out, they were actually using it IV - so that is another very specific demographic of drug user. Using MMCs IV is a whole other ball game though, that is a bit of an acquired taste, so if you can't get them to start doing that one way, I doubt they're gonna want to pick it over their current. Maybe if they are antisocial they only have one dealer and he got arrested so now you get the business, who knows?