Meth's rising US impact

As a public health and crime problem, meth started out in the Western and Southwestern US, but steadily moved north and east. Last year there were more meth lab incidents in Illinois than there were in California. In the first six months of 2004, meth treatment admissions in Atlanta were up more than 10 percent and nearly 20 percent in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Among current ways of tackling the problem, states are restricting the sale of cold medicines, from which pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in meth, is obtained. Under political pressure, US pharmaceutical companies have begun reformulating their cold remedies to avoid using pseudoephedrine.

The federal government has launched a plan to fight such synthetic drugs, which includes tracking the production and shipment of cold medicines overseas - especially in Mexico, where meth "superlabs" (those that can produce at least 10 pounds of the drug in a 24-hour period) run by cartels have been a major source of the drug coming into the United States. The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported last week that imports to Mexico of cold medicine with pseudoephedrine had shot up from 66 tons to 224 tons in the past five years.

Bush administration officials acknowledge the problem. Still, many in Congress, where a bipartisan "meth caucus" has grown to 100 members from 35 states, and in state houses and legislatures around the country say the White House has been slow to attack meth as a major drug problem.

US Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California and Jim Talent (R) of Missouri are sponsoring legislation that would move cold medicines with pseudoephedrine behind the counter and require identification and a signature to purchase the drug. It also sets monthly limits per person, and it provides funding to study means of treatment.

"Our legislation would enact the toughest antimeth law in the country so we can finally get ahead of the meth cooks and keep this terrible drug out of our neighborhoods and schools," says Senator Talent.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the "most effective treatments for methamphetamine addiction are cognitive behavioral interventions ... designed to help modify the patient's thinking, expectancies, and behaviors and to increase skills in coping with various life stressors." Recovery support groups and antidepressant medications have proven helpful, the institute finds, but there is no drug that specifically treats methamphetamine addiction.

So far, there are few programs around the country specifically designed to treat meth addiction. For example, only 16 percent of counties surveyed have a meth rehabilitation center, which means that for most charged, jail is the only option.

• According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 12.3 million Americans ages 12 and older reported trying meth at least once.

• Meth users are generally: high school and college students, white- and blue-collar workers, unemployed workers in their 20s and 30s.

• The problem, originally concentrated in the West, has spread throughout almost every major metropolitan area in the US with the exception of the Northeast.

• Meth use comes at a high cost to communities: an increase in crimes ranging from theft to assault, an increase of children displaced to foster care, highly toxic meth lab sites that are dangerous and difficult to clean up.

source: National Association of Counties, Office of National Drug Control Policy

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