Not only that but good ice can go for up to $160 a gram here. With the traditional rp/I2 method alone (one of the most expensive methods IMHO), it can be had for less than $10 per gram (that's mainly matches and pills, excluding solvents and such, which usually last more than one batch). Why in bloody mutherfucking hell would I want to pay $160 for something that cost me about a sixteenth of that to make. Everytime I had an accident like spill the plate or put it in an excessively windy place, other people would rant about my careless behaviour. Maybe because they had payed high prices all their lives and didn't know anybetter. All the while I would just smile and say something "It's ok, I didn't lose but a few bucks scrounged from the couch on a rainy day".
It's sad to. Something like the rp/I2 method IMHO takes very little chemistry knowledge to do. If at least 60% of the people who do meth would take the time to learn and make it, prices would drop dramatically do to the sudden slump on the market. Nobody would buy/sell meth anymore, as they could make it or know some who does. That would make some people shit out of luck, but a great deal more would be very happy (and really jacked on cheap good shit).
Now I say that is sad because in reality people are lazy, esp. people with money, which is why this doesn't happen. And you would think with all the meth they buy they wouldn't be so lazy. Take my ex-roomates of course, who were meth feinds. I never once bought my own pills the whole time. Never had to scrape a striker, they were more than willing to spend $10 and a few hours of there god given time to get a gram of the finest and best shit they would ever touch. But they are still lazy, cause I tried teaching them right before we split, and they were too uninterested to be interested, do you get what I mean? They even said they wanted to learn, after all they were about to lose a very great priveledge buy not living with me anymore. But they sit at there house today, not doing ice, but doing nothing because they are lazy (probably a good thing they way they were getting, from the constant ice use, not the lazyness).
Basically, learn to make it, and unless you somehow get busted or something else equally as bad happens, you will never in your life regret that you took the time. A couple hours doing something like scraping match strikers sucks, but it is time well spent.