Drug War: An American Epidemic | Saturday Evening Post

Subscribe Online | E-mail Newsletter | Museum Gift Shoppe




	Departments


		Health / Fitness
		Food / Recipes
		Books / Reviews
		Opinion / Letters
		Features
		Humor / Cartoons
		Activities / Games
		Post Illustrators
		All Departments




	Topics


		Alzeimers
		Arthritis
		Bipolar Disorder
		Diabetes
		Eye Health
		Heart Health
		All Topics




	Magazine




		Current Issue
		Subscribe Online
		Magazine Extras




	Resources


		E-mail Newsletter
		RSS Feeds
		Disclaimer
		Site Map

Drug War: An American Epidemic

With the meth epidemic raging, states try limiting access to the ingredients.

To thwart meth production, most states are requiring consumers to sign for cold and allergy medicines.

The Faces of Meth

Theresa Baxter admits that being on meth is the closest thing to being a zombie, a member of the living dead. Baxter's two mug shots, taken at the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Portland, Oregon, woefully detail the toll that meth takes on the body and soul.

The first picture was taken in 2002, when Baxter was arrested for identity theft and fraud. In the second, taken 21⁄2 years later, the once-attractive brunette now has a road map of deep wrinkles. Baxter looks nothing like her former self. And she is only 42.

• Photo Gallery: The Faces of Meth

Discussion

Dealing with meth - How do you think states should deal with the ever increasing problem of meth invading their communities?

About the author

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).

By Andrea Neal

From the January/February 2006 Issue

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.

E-mail

Print

Discuss | Text Size:

Highlighted Articles

		New Solution to the organ shortage Is there a simple and better incentive to increase organ donations?
		Roughing It in Africa A behind the scenes look at the safari of a lifetime in a Kenyan game reserve.
		Diabetes: Healthy choices Learn to manage diabetes without sacrificing great taste with savory and healthy soulutions.
		Tiger Woods' turbo swing Efficient use of body physics has made Tiger Woods' drive the most powerful in golf.