Pubdate: Sun, 1 Jan 2006
Issue: January/February 2006
Source: Saturday Evening Post (US)
Contact: http://www.satevepost.org/resources/magazine/letterstoeditor.shtml
Copyright: 2006 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society
Website: http://www.satevepost.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4075
Author: Andrea Neal
Referenced: Andrea Neal is an 8th-grade English and history teacher 
at St. Richard's School in Indianapolis and an adjunct scholar with 
the Indiana Policy Review (www.inpolicy.org).
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG WAR: AN AMERICAN EPIDEMIC

With the Meth Epidemic Raging, States Try Limiting Access to the Ingredients.

Lt. Ron D. Smith of the Nevada County Sheriff's Department has seen 
plenty of drug users in his time, but nothing quite like the ones 
tweaked on meth. In his "sleepy little county" in central California, 
40 percent of all arrests are meth-related. The crimes, he says, are 
getting wackier and wackier.

"Meth actually makes you crazy," Smith says.

That's the scariest thing about methamphetamine, an illegal drug that 
has reached epidemic status across much of the United States. After 
it invades the central nervous system to achieve its high, meth turns 
perfectly normal people into psychotics, often violent ones.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan calls methamphetamine "perhaps 
the most destructive drug ever encountered."

Crime log entries from coast to coast confirm her assessment. In 
Nevada County, a meth addict in a psychotic state broke into an 
elderly woman's home, inexplicably bearing a can of gasoline, and 
beat her up. There was no motive. In New Mexico, a man high on meth 
and alcohol beheaded his 14-year-old son and tossed the head from his 
van window onto a busy highway. In Cave Junction, Oregon, the parents 
of a three-month-old were arrested for meth possession and child 
endangerment. Their baby's feeding bottle was touching a drug-filled 
syringe and hypodermic needle that was "loaded up and ready to go," 
police said.

Methamphetamine is a brain-damaging drug. A stimulant similar to 
cocaine, it causes an intense rush when smoked or injected 
intravenously and a sense of euphoria when used orally or sniffed. 
The substance, which can be easily made using household chemicals 
like lye and cold medicine, has been shown to alter brain cells 
permanently and cause neurological symptoms similar to those seen in 
Parkinson's disease.

As with similar stimulants, methamphetamine often is used in a "binge 
and crash" pattern. Eventually, users enter a stage called "tweaking" 
on the way down from their high. It is then that they are prone to 
violence, delusions and paranoid behavior. Many believe they are 
being followed or harassed and "end up taking action against imagined 
persecution," Smith explains.

The unpredictable behavior has prompted law enforcement agencies to 
set special guidelines for officers encountering suspects: Stay seven 
to ten feet away because moving closer could be perceived as 
threatening. Don't shine bright lights at a suspect who could go 
berserk if blinded.

Considering the risks, it's hard to imagine why any sane person would 
choose to use this highly addictive stimulant. Yet sane people by the 
hundreds have found the temptation irresistible.

Take, for example, the deputy auditor in Evansville, Indiana, who 
pleaded guilty in October to embezzling nearly $28,000 in taxpayer 
money. He said he needed the money to buy methamphetamine for a habit 
that began while he worked 16-hour days processing tax bills.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 2003 
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (the latest available), more 
than 12.3 million people age 12 and older reported that they had used 
methamphetamine at least once in their lifetime. That's up 40 percent 
from 2000 and 156 percent over 1996. While the cost varies by region, 
users can expect to spend an average of $100 per gram, or about $25 a "hit."

"Why would anyone use any illegal drug?" asks Lt. Smith. "I guess you 
just use it a few times to see what it's like and it probably makes 
you feel real good. Then you fall into that common addiction behavior."

Meth, however, is anything but common. Even heroin seems mild in 
comparison, Smith says. "A heroin user will shoot up and nod for a 
while. They'll steal to support their habit, but they won't go crazy."

As if the dangers of ingesting meth aren't enough, its manufacture in 
makeshift labs that "cook" its ingredients in an explosive stew poses 
extreme risk to those present and neighbors.

Economic implications are enormous because of its ripple effect 
through criminal justice, child welfare, and medical systems. There 
are more arrests, more trials and more people going to prison, as 
well as more child protection cases. In addition, police are 
struggling to find the money to clean up meth sites, which can cost 
$1,000 a pop if cooking has occurred and disposal specialists are 
called in. For every pound of methamphetamine produced, five to seven 
pounds of toxic waste remain, which is often poured into streams and 
septic systems.

There's also the cost of fighting fires when explosions occur, and 
treating human injuries. Four Vanderburgh County, Indiana, residents 
were hospitalized recently as a result of lab explosions, and two had 
to be flown to a special burn unit in Louisville for treatment. The 
dollar signs just keep adding up.

A July 2005 report, "The Meth Epidemic in America," prepared for the 
National Association of Counties, warned that local government 
budgets may be stretched to the limit by the war on meth. The survey 
of 500 county law enforcement agencies in 45 states revealed 
staggering increases in law enforcement expenses. Among the findings:

.  58 percent of counties reported that meth is now their No. 1 drug 
problem, while 19 percent cited cocaine, 17 percent marijuana, and 3 
percent heroin.

.  82 percent of counties said their workload has gone up due to 
meth. Fifty-two percent said they have had to pay more overtime; 13 
percent have had to shift work assignments, and 11 percent are 
assigning police officers to longer shifts.

.  Half of all counties said that one out of five jail inmates is 
incarcerated because of meth-related crimes. Seventeen percent of 
counties said more than half their inmates were there because of meth.

.  40 percent of child welfare officials blamed meth for an increase 
in out-of-home placements of children determined to be living in 
abusive or neglectful situations.

Although user horror stories are on the rise, one statistic appears 
on the decline. For almost a decade, the number of meth labs seized 
by police has doubled or even tripled annually, especially in the 
Midwest where more than 50 percent of the labs are found. In 2005, 
the number started to fall.

North Dakota police shut down 31 meth labs from June through 
September 2005, compared to 85 over the same period in 2004. Attorney 
General Wayne Stenehjem credited the decline to a new law requiring 
retailers who sell cold pills with pseudoephedrine to ask customers 
for identification and write down the buyer's name, address, birth 
date and driver's license number. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in meth.

Similarly, the number of lab busts has fallen in Indiana, a direct 
result of a new law requiring stores to keep many cold medicines 
behind counters, state officials say. Meth lab seizures declined from 
a peak of 141 in March 2005 to 53 in September 2005.

Oklahoma was the first state to restrict sales of pseudoephedrine in 
2004. Since then, Oklahoma has experienced an 80 percent drop in 
small lab busts.

Thirty-seven states now restrict sales of pseudoephedrine, which is 
found in at least a dozen cold medicines. But the laws vary from 
requiring a prescription to simply limiting the number of packages 
purchased at the same time. Thirteen states have no pseudoephedrine 
laws, although some have legislation pending, the National Conference 
of State Legislatures reports.

John Von Arx, chairman of the Commission for a Drug-Free Indiana, 
said it's too early to tell if the drug laws are making a permanent 
dent in the problem.

For one, shipments of meth produced in foreign countries continue to 
flood the state. In addition, it's possible that meth manufacturers 
are becoming more sophisticated and being driven further underground.

Mom-and-pop laboratories in the United States produce about 35 
percent of the total meth production. The U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration says Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating 
"super labs" in Mexico and California control the rest. These 
laboratories can produce more than 10 pounds of methamphetamine in 
one 24-hour production cycle.

The methamphetamine seized annually en route from Mexico to the 
United States has increased dramatically since 1992. Authorities 
seized 1,370 kilograms of methamphetamine along the border in 2001, 
compared with only 6.5 kilograms in 1992.

Behind the headlines of crazed criminals and lab busts are individual 
stories of people trying desperately to kick a habit that is ravaging 
their brains and their bodies. Finding funding for treatment programs 
is emerging as the next big issue for county justice systems.

Successful meth treatment requires the use of cognitive-behavioral 
therapy, which is expensive and time-consuming. Research shows that 
recovering addicts require a longer and more intense outpatient 
program than is needed for many other drugs. Without follow-up, 
relapse is likely.

In Nevada County, first- and second-time drug users are offered a 
rehab program instead of prison time, thanks to Proposition 36, a 
measure approved by California voters in 2000.

"The voters had good intentions," Lt. Smith says. "I don't think 
Proposition 36 is doing much good." Too often, Smith says, patrol 
officers haul meth addicts off to jail only to see them back on the 
street within days.

Drug treatment funds are scarce in virtually every U.S. city, a sign 
that meth still holds the upper hand in this frightening epidemic.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake