Methamphetamine traffickers continue adapting to enforcement and precursor controls
Despite a 3-fold increase in global methamphetamine seizures between 2014 and 2024, reported quantities of intercepted methamphetamine precursors (-85 per cent) and the number of dismantled methamphetamine laboratories (-94 per cent) declined sharply – reflecting shifts toward larger scale production, relocation to countries with weaker controls and changes in reporting practices (narrowing the definition of a “laboratory” to exclude related storage, tableting, packaging and chemical dumping sites).
Seizures of methamphetamine laboratories also point to a geographical expansion of production beyond the established markets of East and South-East Asia, North America and Australia and New Zealand.
Data on seizures of methamphetamine precursors suggest traffickers continue to adjust precursors in response to regulation: between 2014-2021 there was growing reliance on P-2-P related precursors, but – as some of these chemicals came under international control – after 2022 traffickers seem to have shifted back to primarily ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in some countries (with these substances accounting for about two thirds of all methamphetamine precursors seized in 2024).
Seizure data on precursor chemicals show distinct regional patterns: P-2-P related precursors dominate in North America (Mexico) and Europe (with production of methamphetamine for export largely limited to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium), while ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are most common in East and South-East Asia and Africa. In South-West Asia, particularly Afghanistan, clandestine methamphetamine production has relied heavily on locally grown ephedra, although more recent trends suggest a shift toward ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
