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EdwardDiego11/08/20240 repliesview on HN

Same in New Zealand, we removed pseudoephedrine as an option unless you had a special dispensation from the Ministry of Health - mainly due to pharmacies being ram-raided for the pseudo.

The end result? The gangs just started importing pseudo, before later just switching to importing methamphetamine directly (something that Australia's deportation policies really helped with as the "501s" as we call them that were deported back to NZ often had existing connections that could facilitate the direct importation of meth).

It's a really interesting supply chain that involves organised crime groups in multiple countries, often starts in India for the precursors, then clandestine labs in Laos/Vietnam/Thailand overseen by Chinese groups in conjunction with local groups, then smuggled via the Pacific Islands, notably Fiji and Samoa where the Chinese groups have established transshipment facilities, before being smuggled into Australia and NZ by local groups who then distribute and supply it.

A new development has been the Central American cartels branching out from cocaine to meth so there's been a bunch of meth coming directly from the Americas.