[Scoundreller]

Or it just gets pushed underground. Just because there was a lot of heat from publicly selling it, it still may be manufactured. Along with a price increase to make up for the lost volume.

The whole point of precursors is to buy something that is multi-use or that one could do the paperwork for to import legitimately before diverting.

We might be dealing with this for a while. The whole enforcement regime continues to be diverted around, so now we just have ultra-potent stuff that is basically unsafe to handle but the only choice.

[Retric]

At that point just import fentanyl. The precursors reduced legal risks on the manufacturing side. Take that away and they might as well just make the real drug.

[Scoundreller]

Sometimes the precursors are legal if you have the right paperwork (e.g. importing it for some industrial process).

And, other time, the final product has a much higher molecular weight, so you get more bang for your smuggled kilo or m^3 bringing precursors.