Meth 2.0 is killing Americans faster than opioids and ravaging communities with its 'Breaking Bad' levels of purity

A new methamphetamine - stronger and cheaper than previous versions, and referred to as Meth 2.0 - has taken hold of the United States.

As the opioid epidemic has started to show signs of subsiding across the US, the more pure version of methamphetamine which has emerged has solidified its place as America's drug of choice, says law enforcement.

To blame are Mexican super labs run by the cartels, according to authorities, which now output 90 per cent of the meth that's being dealt in the states, and it comes more potent, is cheaper and more plentiful than ever before. 

'It's a lot like 'Breaking Bad',' Tim Lohmar, the Prosecuting Attorney in St. Charles County, Missouri, tells The Fix, a news site on addiction and recovery, in a reference to the hit series about cancer-stricken high school teacher Walter White starting an illegal meth empire to save his family from financial ruin.  

White used his knowledge of chemistry to produce a powerful, almost irresistible version of methamphetamine. 

'If you're familiar with that show, you know that the purity of the methamphetamine and the ease of the mass production is what made it so addictive and relatively cheap,' Lohmar tells the Fix.

'These Mexican labs are making a very pure methamphetamine. It's almost night and day different than your old-fashioned basement meth lab sort of thing, explains Lohmar. 

Missouri was once considered the meth production capital of the US. Lohmar says that notoriety now applies more to the cartels, because of the efficiency of their illicit operations.

'They can mass produce the meth and distribute it at a reduced price, which consequently has led to a rise in local consumption', he says. 

Drug dealers looking to sell more product typically have cut methamphetamine with dangerous additives. 

These include lithium metal, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, as well as red phosphorus, according to American Addiction Centers, the largest network of rehab facilities nationwide.

But the methamphetamines from Mexico are being distributed in the drug's purest form.

'Methamphetamine sampled through the DEA profiling program is almost 97% pure, while prices remain low and stable.' adds  William Callahan, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Drug Enforcement Agency's St. Louis Division, quoting from the 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment.

There are still some of the small 'shake-and-bake style labs' across the state, but the vast majority of the methamphetamines coming into Missouri are from south of the border, reports The Fix.

The chart above shows the number of methamphetamine-related deaths in the US have spiked in the last two years, as reported by Efficientgov.com

On a national level, meth hasn't caught up to the opioids epidemic, although a spike in methamphetamine-related deaths in the last two years was steeper than the rise in opioid deaths 20 years ago when the crisis began, reports USA Today.

The opioid epidemic in its first decade saw overdose deaths rise from 3,400 in 1999 to 13,500 by 2009, based on a Stateline analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

However, the spike in deaths has been much higher when it comes to meth 2.0, thanks to the cheap and powerful imported version that's come. Meth overdose deaths increased from 2,600 in 2012 to 10,300 in 2017, reports USA Today.

But unlike opioids, meth users are less likely to die from an overdose than people who are addicted to painkillers. 

Rather, meth addicts start dying a slow death, experiencing weight loss, painful sores on their bodies, in addition to emotional and mental problems.

Besides purity, meth has risen above all other drugs on price point, which in some areas is as low as $20 a gram, according to addiction specialists.

Once hooked, it becomes very difficult to resist the drug. Recovering addict Erika Haas calls the cravings 'the pull'.

When the North Carolina woman was 24, her doctor prescribed OxyContin for back pain. She said she quickly progressed to heroin — and then to methamphetamines.

Now at 30 and in recovery, Haas described the grip that meth had over her for more than five years.

'It's like God tells you that if you take another breath, your children will die,' she said, shaking her head and trying to hold back tears as she was interviewed by USA Today.

'You do everything you can not to take a breath. But eventually you do. That's what it's like' adds Haas. 'Your brain just screams at you'