A room in a house or a basement can become manufacturing laboratory for methamphetamine easier than a closet in a city apartment. Similarly, access to cocaine and other illicit substances may be easier in inner cities, which are usually ports of entry for foreign and regional cartels. Demand for methamphetamine may be linked to the availability of other substances in urban centers.

If access to cocaine, heroin, and other drugs is limited in rural areas then it is also likely that the prevalence of methamphetamine in rural regions is linked to consumer demand. Manufacturing methamphetamine is relatively simple, and in some ways easier than traveling to a distant city to procure drugs. The drug is also fairly inexpensive to make yet can supplement incomes through its sale on the black market. Drug and alcohol abuse is relatively common in rural areas, even those with few cocaine or heroin problems ("Meth...
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