How 82.52 pounds of meth is worth $3.7 million on the street, as explained by Kansas law enforcement

How 82.52 pounds of meth is worth $3.7 million on the street, as explained by Kansas law enforcement

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says the street value of meth is $5,000 a pound across Kansas.

So when law enforcement seized 82.57 pounds of methamphetamines last week in southeast Kansas, how did the KBI come up with a value of $3.7 million instead of the anticipated $412,850?

Bulk buying.

People buying meth in bulk receive discounts, “Similar to when we buy from Sam’s Club or Costco,” said Melissa Underwood, the KBI’s communications director.

Bulk buying vs. street-level purchases

The $5,000-per-pound figure cited in KBI’s 2020 Annual Methamphetamine Recommendation Report would have reflected the approximate cost for making bulk purchases of 1 pound at a time, Underwood said.

The discount would have been even more pronounced if someone were buying a kilogram, which is 2.2 pounds of the drug, she said.

More:KBI says these 40 people remain unaccounted for after going missing from Shawnee County

Underwood said the street value of the meth seized was calculated using the estimated value for street-level purchases of that drug in Kansas of $100 per gram, which isn’t listed in the KBI’s annual meth recommendation report.

“We chose to use the per-gram price calculation since the gram amounts are the quantity that a typical street user is most likely to purchase,” Underwood said.

About the drug seizure

The KBI reported the meth was seized Sept. 29 after a pickup truck was stopped for speeding by a police officer in Neodesha in Wilson County.

Arrested were the pickup’s two occupants, both 19 and from Texas.

How the KBI did the math on meth

There are 28 grams in an ounce and 16 grams in a pound, so the KBI calculated its $3.7 million estimate by the following:

• Multiplying 82.57, the number of pounds seized, by 16, the number of ounces in a pound, to determine that 1,321.12 ounces of methamphetamine were seized.
• Multiplying 1,321.12, the number of ounces seized, by 28, the number of grams in an ounce, to determine that 36,991.36 grams of methamphetamine were seized.
• And multiplying that total by the street value of $100 a gram to come up with the figure of $3,699,136 per gram (street price).

The $5,000 listed in the report reflected the bulk purchase rate, which would be the approximate cost of buying 1 pound at a time.