Comments on Crystal Cathedral, Cont.

A lot. It's cheaper than cocaine and if ecstasy runs $20-25 a hit, I'd have to guess that a $100 bucks is buying more than one person would reasonably use alone.

On Air America I heard it referred to as "a party".

Frontline says:

"What is the average street price for meth? Has it varied over the years?

One hit of meth is about a quarter of a gram and will cost a user about $25. However, the price of meth is volatile and can get as high as $80 per hit. As with most drugs, the price depends on the drug's purity, the amount and where it is sold. An example: in 2002 the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) reported that a gram of pure meth was as high as $330 in Chicago but only $60 in Seattle. Although the price of meth, when adjusted for inflation, has declined since the early 1980s, it remains relatively high; today, an ounce of meth costs nearly 10 times as much as an ounce of gold."

Last time I touched speed would have been about 1986, when you could get an eighth of an ounce for about $40 -- enough to last one or two recreational users for a long weekend, or enough for a hard core speed freak to blow on a single shot.

Factoring in inflation and the drug war, I'm guessing $100 would get you anywhere from and eighth to a quarter. Just a guess though.

I'm guessing the price is a little higher than usual for deeply closeted powerful evangelical ministers sitting in hotel suites waiting for a massage.

He should come up to Pierce or Snohomish Counties; the stuff practically grows on trees.

Meth is in no way cheaper than cocaine. Usually about a gram per $100, coke is usually half that, but the bang per buck is better... a quarter gram is waaaaay more than a single hit. A quarter gram is what one single person who isn't a huge 'head will go through in a 24 hour period.

Oh yeah, grams, not ounces. Been a long time.

Depends on source and quality, but just a few years ago $100 would buy you a Tina of the best. A Tina is half an eightball, so it clocks in at just under two grams.

Mea cupla. I was operating off information based on living in a state that is the third highest producer of methamphetamine in the country. It's probably a smidge cheaper there.

And in my limited experience, low-grade coke costs about twice as much as high-grade crystal meth in Seattle.

Wikipedia lists meth at an average cost of $150 per gram.

re:10, shit, you want a new dealer?

Okay, so shit if this stuff doesn't come back like riding a bike.

But at about 28 grams to an ounce, or about 450-some-odd grams in a pound, I'm thinking my original recollection of fractions of an ounce is more likely true, and some of this info has to be bogus.

A "street value" of $68,000/lb just can't be true (if $150/gram is correct, which I don't think it is).

I'm thinking the quantity I got in those little paper packets in the mid-1980s must have been in the order of a few grams, which would jive with my recollection of an eighth of an ounce -- which would produce enough lines for a few sessions with more than one person. And the quarter-ounce packets were usually out of my price range at closer to the $100 mark.

Beyond that, my recollection can't be trusted. But I don't think a typical purchase would be a fraction of a gram.

My money is that #8 is the most informed so far. Because the math works.

It's been a decade since I used any, but a hundred bucks, if smoked, could have lasted me and my best friend a long weekend. If snorted, two days.

re:12
Oops, that was clumsily worded.

On a gram for gram basis, coke is about half the price of crystal.

On a dose for dose basis, crystal is about half the price of coke.

In Seattle, only a couple of years ago, a teener of crystal (1/16th of an ounce, or 1.75 grams) would run about $120-$140.

$40 would buy enough for two non-addicted people to use for a night and probably have some left over.

Coke is $100/gram or so if memory serves.

In terms of how long these drugs last, meth is the better buy since one line can keep you going for most of a day, and a line of coke will last for 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Best. Comment. Thread. Ever.

Couple of thoughts:

First comparing meth quality and prices from pre-1992 to now is maybe not apples and oranges, but it's headed there. Radically different ingredients and methods of manufacture. (Caveat: except for the meth coming in from Mexico? This might actually be meth using old school ingredients. And in Denver, it may well be Mexican meth.)

Comparing coke and meth prices is also problematic. Meth tends not to get stepped on (cut/adulterated) as much as coke...usually what you buy is what got cooked or pretty darn close. With coke, by the time it hits street level users it might be as low as 10 or 15% purity. So with coke you have to figure purity into the cost (e.g a gram at $50 for 15% purity is the same cost as a gram at $100 for 30% purity). This is where having a good reliable dealer comes in handy. Especially in Seattle, which is notorious for having about the weakest coke in the US.

Back in my coke heyday I wouldn't bat an eyelash about paying more for really good stuff.

Meth prices in Seattle can be as low as $40 or $50 a gram if you gotta a good connect, but can be much higher (say $80 to $199). A purchase of $100 or $200 worth should get you quite a bit though. Several days worth of hard partying as others have said.

Playing devil's advocate: what if he had no idea how much it cost, and just said "I want to get two hundred dollars worth of meth?"

nah, he was trying to say "two hundred dollars worth of men" but had trouble enunciating his request. Shy and all.