Selective: Increased Meth in Florida and the Southern Border
The Claim
There has been an acceleration of meth coming across the U.S. southern border into Florida because of President Joe Biden's loose border regulations.
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Emerging story
On June 16, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that the state has a worsening meth problem due to loosened border restrictions: “That meth, if you go back 10, 20 years ago, you’d find these places where they’d be cooking this stuff up locally. That’s not what’s happening now. It’s almost all coming across the southern border, and it’s been accelerating for the last six months, and it’s deepening the problems that we are having in terms of getting a handle on this in our own communities here in the state of Florida." He also blamed Biden's loose border policies for increased meth in Florida.
DeSantis’s claim soon took off on social media.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that the subject is complicated. The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 banned mass sales of over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed, used to make meth. Still, meth lab incidents increased over the following few years, with many groups “smurfing,” or sending people out to several stores to make single purchases of PSE to circumvent the law. An analysis by the American Addiction Centers shows there have been at least 877 meth labs in Florida in the past decade.
Most of the meth in Florida does come from foreign sources. Although it is nebulous data at best, analysts rely on drug seizure data to determine the extent of illegal drug passage into the U.S. For example, in March 2021, federal agents seized 550 kilos of crystal meth traveling from Mexico to Miami. A 2020 report from the DEA says that “methamphetamine has flooded into the United States across the southern border. Mexican transnational criminal organizations continue to supply most of the cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl smuggled into the country.”
DeSantis said that Biden’s loosened border regulations led to an increase of meth in Florida. However, the data for the time that Biden has been in office does not reflect an increase in meth seizure.
Further, increased drug seizure does not necessarily mean increased drug availability. An increase in drug seizure might be due to improved technology. Florida drug overdoses soared during the pandemic, and it is also possible that even if there is an increase in meth availability in Florida it is due to increased demand following pandemic drug use.
Since DeSantis is correct that most of Florida’s meth comes from foreign sources, but it is impossible to know whether the increase in meth is because of Biden’s looser border policies (which seems counterintuitive since the drug data is from seizure at the border), we rate this claim as selective.
