[ButThreeLeftsDo]

On any given day, new arrests in my county are fully 50% meth related.

[bnelson44]

here too

[Thermalseeker]

On any given day, new arrests in my county are fully 50% meth related.

Until they stopped selling psudoeffedrine off the shelf it was getting pretty bad here in SE Tennessee. Before they were busting about 2-4 meth labs a week. Now, it's about one a month.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

It is the same where I live.

Don't get me wrong. You should have heard me when I went to counter at the local Walmart to get Claritan-D and they asked for my license. "That's right, I might be cooking meth." Threw the little card down on the counter and told my husband I will get it from a store which does not assume I am a criminal. At which point my husband told me to calm down and then I went up a notch, LOL

I hate these feel good, useless laws.

At the same time, I hate any attempt to minimize the problem meth has become. Most traffic arrests are meth related in my county. Alcohol is 2nd.

[discostu]

But how many arrests are there a day? Half of very few arrests isn't a major problem. And certainly not a big enough problem for the fed to treat every single allergy sufferer in America like a criminal.

[MadLibDisease]

Guy I knew on meth just killed himself because of the addiction, both his brothers are also addicts

[elkfersupper]

On any given day, new arrests in my county are fully 50% meth related.

Note to the unwary:

If you should happen to get arrested for some reason (and there are many), your arrest may be "meth-related" because you recently bought, or had in your posession "meth-related" materials" like glassware, cold medication, matches, bleach, ammonia, etc., etc., etc.

[Sparticus]

Meth's not a problem around here... not since three of the worst tweekers in our semi-rural neighborhood have gone away. One overdosed on heroin last year when she couldn't find any meth. Another got drug off by a SWAT team to a "residential treatment facility" (IE loony bin) after attacking a young woman in her car with a baseball bat. A third asphyxiated himself with propane in a tent after getting out of jail. But not before burning down number two's mobile home in a seperate incident (unoccupied, fortunately).

Yeah, meth isn't a problem around here.

[kcvl]

Methamphetamine Use Research - Crystal Meth Addiction, Use and Treatment

The DASIS Report: Trends in Methamphetamine / Amphetamine Admissions to Treatment, 1993-2003

In 47 States*, methamphetamine was the primary drug in 86% of the combined methamphetamine/amphetamine treatment admissions in 2003.

Nationally, the rate of substance abuse treatment admissions for primary methamphetamine/amphetamine abuse increased between 1993 to 2003 from 13 per 100,000 to 56 admissions per 100,000 population aged 12 or older.

In 2003, 18 States had rates in excess of the national rate (56 admissions per 100,000 population). The highest rates were in Oregon (251 admissions per 100,000), Hawaii (241 per 100,000), Iowa (213 per 100,000), California (212 per 100,000), Wyoming (209 per 100,000), Utah (186 per 100,000), Nevada (176 per 100,000), Washington State (143 per 100,000), Montana (133 per 100,000), Arkansas (130 admissions per 100,000 population), Nebraska (118 per 100,000), and Oklahoma (117 per 100,000). All the rates for the States in the Northeast were 5 or less per 100,000 population.

*According to SAMHSA's Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), 47 of the 50 States distinguish between methamphetamines and amphetamines as primary substances of abuse in their reporting to TEDS. Arkansas, Oregon, and Texas do not distinguish between amphetamine and methamphetamine in their reporting of primary substance of abuse in treatment admissions.


******


Your brain on Meth...


http://www.nida.nih.gov/Testimony/Methslide2.jpg



Methamphetamine and HIV

Drug abuse remains one of the primary vectors for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. The recent case of an HIV-infected METH abuser in New York City with a particularly virulent strain of HIV is a sobering reminder of the link between drug abuse and HIV. Methamphetamine is inextricably linked with HIV, hepatitis C, and other sexually transmitted diseases. METH use increases the risk of contracting HIV not only due to the use of contaminated equipment, but also due to increased risky sexual behaviors as well as physiological changes that may favor HIV transmission.



http://tinyurl.com/mns6z


******

Sep 26 2005

Rates of Use Remain Level, Survey Says

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released data showing that the prevalence of methamphetamine use in 2004 was similar to the number of users in the prior two years. But, the new 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health also showed that the number of past month methamphetamine users who met criteria for illicit drug dependence or abuse in the past 12 months increased sharply.

In 2004, 1.4 million persons ages 12 or older (0.6 percent of the population) used methamphetamine in the past year and 600,000 (0.2 percent) used in the past month. These numbers are similar to numbers in 2002 and 2003.

However, the number of past month methamphetamine users who met criteria for illicit drug dependence or abuse in the past 12 months increased from 164,000 (27.5 percent of past month methamphetamine users in 2002 to 346,000 (59.3 percent) in 2004. Of these 130,000 (22.3 percent) had stimulants, primarily methamphetamine, as their primary substance of abuse in 2004.

"Methamphetamine is undeniably a uniquely destructive drug," SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie said. "While rates of use have remained relatively stable over the past few years, these new findings show that an increasing proportion of methamphetamine users are developing problems of drug abuse and dependence and are in need of treatment." The survey questions ask about both illicit methamphetamine, as well as prescription methamphetamine used nonmedically. Dependence or abuse is defined using criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) used by psychiatrists for their diagnoses.


318,000 New Meth Users
Information on symptoms of dependence and abuse is collected for alcohol and a number of specific illicit drug categories, including stimulants, but not exclusively methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is the most frequently reported stimulant used.
The survey found that in 2004 there were an estimated 318,000 new initiates to methamphetamine use, defined as having used it for the first time in the 12 months prior to the survey. This is approximately the same number of new users in 2002 and 2003.


Western States Highest in Meth Use
The data ranked 12 states in the West, including Nevada, Wyoming and Montana, among states with the highest past year use of methamphetamine. Connecticut, New York and North Carolina were among the states with the lowest rates. The rate of use was higher in counties in small metropolitan areas and counties not in metropolitan areas than in counties in large metropolitan areas.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health is an annual survey of close to 70,000 people. The survey collects information from residents of households, residents of non-institutionalized group quarters and civilians living on military bases.

[Law is not justice but process]

"On any given day, new arrests in my county are fully 50% meth related."

Where are you? In my county in Coastal South Carolina we are still seeing a minor amount of meth, even with large numbers of bikers around. Here crack is still King. We had a rash of Ecstasy that seems to have petered out and a huge upswing of Oxycontin arrests that has tapered off since the local script writers have been shut down (of course, that led to a huge upswing in heroin). Meth has never taken hold as I am told it has in the West and Midwest (or even Upstate South Carolina). I suspect is will come eventually and do not relish the thought.

We had an interesting meth case last week. A woman was arrested with a meth "kit." It was a box with all the ingredients and hardware for making meth. It even had written instructions (in pencil on yellow legal paper - looked like jail mail). It was clearly homemade, but also clearly mass-produced (maybe in the dozens, not hundreds). I wonder if that is a harbinger?

[moviegirl]

You must live near me. 2 cousin's on it, in their 50's no less. Three friends in recovery from it. That advocacy group must have hit the "dry" cities. :)