America’s Deadly Synthetic Opioid Epidemic Is Being Driven By Free Market Capitalism

According to Quinones, the question of who profits from the spread of meth and synthetic opioids like fentanyl isn’t as clear-cut as it was in his previous book. “Certainly there’s an enormous population of people in Mexico that are profiting from it,” he said. Producers get the chemicals to manufacture synthetic drugs from China and then they make the drugs in Mexico. It’s a synthetic-drug gold rush, “very much kind of a wild west,” Quinones continued, with multiple competing drug-makers forcing the price of meth and fentanyl down in a ferocious competition. “It’s like a constant glut economy down there right now,” he said. “That’s why you’re seeing prices so low over the last few years, and why meth has come to areas that never ever had it all across the country.” <a href="https://medium.com/civic-skunk-works/americas-deadly-synthetic-opioid-epidemic-is-being-driven-by-free-market-capitalism-536e81f7aa6">Learn More</a>