How Breaking Bad Predicted the Rise of Meth 2.0

On the hit TV series Breaking Bad high school teacher Walter White turned to cooking crystal meth to pay for his cancer treatments and earn cash for his family’s future. But the soon-to-be drug kingpin of Albuquerque wasn’t a novice. As a chemistry wizard, White knew exactly what he was doing. The illicit product he cooked—”Blue Sky” meth—was 99.1% chemically pure, leading to unprecedented demand…and unwanted attention from violent drug cartels.

Eventually White was given a secret industrial-quality lab to produce mass batches of the drug for the cartels, allowing them all to quickly amass a fortune. Unfortunately, the show wasn’t far from reality. Although the cartels aren’t producing meth as pure as White’s yet, Meth 2.0 has become a genuine contender.

Meth, which had for a time gone “out of fashion,” has made a lethal comeback in a form that’s more powerful than over. Some samples have been tested at 97% purity. But one of the reasons why Meth 2.0 is stronger isn’t just about the purity, but also because it’s sometimes laced with the extraordinarily potent synthetic opioid fentanyl. Made in Mexico, this latest iteration of the drug is cheaper, stronger, and even being used differently as more addicts now inject it versus snorting or smoking it.

Meth fatalities spiked from 2,600 in 2012 to 10,300 a mere five years later. But unlike opioid-related deaths, meth is less likely to kill its users from an overdose. Instead, meth drags the process out, taking its time as it slowly destroys users’ immune systems, bodies, and minds. In fact, it was one of the inconsistencies of the Breaking Bad show that its second main character Jesse Pinkman never showed any of the physical signs of meth addiction such as rotten teeth or excessive weight loss.

As Fox News’ Phil Keating reported from Florida, law enforcement agencies believe that 90% of the new drug is coming in from Mexico for consumption in America. In speaking about the similarity to Blue Sky crystal meth seen on the Breaking Bad series, Keating quoted Missouri prosecutor Tim Lohmar, who stated about the substance, “It is as pure as anything that’s ever been on the street. It’s easily accessible, it’s mass-produced and the cost is low.”

Netflix recently aired a film sequel to the hugely popular series called El Camino. In it, audiences finally get to see what became of Pinkman after the death of his meth-cooking partner-in-crime Walter White. Although the series finally showed closure for all its fictional characters, those of us in the real world are just starting to witness the horrific real-life beginnings of Meth 2.0.

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