At first blush, the idea of adding flavoring to methamphetamine to make the drug more appealing to young users seems to be plausible. "The traffickers know the word is out about what a horrible drug this is," deputy drug czar Scott Burns told USA Today on March 25. "They are having a tough time selling this product, especially to young people. What do people in marketing do when they have a tough time selling a product? They have to come up with some sort of gimmick."

But Tom McNamara of the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force Group says that Burns' premise is flawed. "The Mexicans are selling all the meth they can make," he tells Join Together. "Why would they need to flavor it? ... The drug is used for its effect, not its flavor."

An estimated 80 percent of meth users either snort or inject the drug, although some novice users eat the drug. "The only way you can appreciate something that tastes good is to eat it," said McNamara, "and that's not the preferred way to use meth. There's no way you're going to get as high as you would by snorting it or shooting it up."

Jeanne Cox, executive director of the Meth Project Foundation, is more willing to accept the flavored meth story. "I wouldn't put anything past these dealers and cartels," she said. "On the face of it, it seems very logical ... It's not an outlandish thing."

Austin, Texas resident Micah Burns, a former meth addict, dealer and cook who is currently in treatment and works as a consultant for a drug-testing firm, agrees that the idea of dealers marketing to kids "definitely makes sense," citing the so-called "cheese heroin" being sold in Dallas as an example.

"Some people have the mindset when they're dealing that it's all about the money," he told Join Together. "If you get them hooked at a young age then you have more time to get money from them."

Micah Burns added that while he personally didn't mind the taste of meth, others found it bitter. Adding flavoring wouldn't make any difference to users who snort the drug  -- "you don't taste it because it burns like all-get-out," he said -- but might be appealing to the minority of users who eat the drug.

However, the former meth-lab operator and chemistry expert questions whether meth could really be mixed with Strawberry Quik drink mix or other sweet substances. "I don't think that's correct, because the sugar group would break down the methyl group" during cooking, ruining the batch, he said.