Is Meth the New Crack?

Oct. XX, 2005 — -- The Aug. 8 edition of Newsweek sent up alarms with its cover story, "The Meth Epidemic: Inside America's New Drug Crisis," complete with gruesome photos of addicts and meth "cooks" burned in home laboratory explosions.

Steve Suo, a reporter at The Oregonian newspaper who has been covering methamphetamine since 2002, says that story was viewed with some frustration by local law enforcement, media and treatment professionals.

Meth has been prevalent in Oregon for years -- the state treats more meth abusers per capita than any other. "People are saying, 'We've been talking about this for 15 years,'" says Suo.

But since the media has christened meth the latest "most dangerous drug in America," the government has declared war on the powerful stimulant. There are two separate bills in Congress now aimed at dealing with the drug, and in mid-August, Bush administration officials announced a new plan to combat meth abuse.

There's little debate whether meth can be a dangerous, addictive drug, but several policy experts warn against sensationalizing another drug "epidemic," like crack cocaine in the 1980s, heroin before that, and marijuana even earlier. And those on the frontlines hope that legislators will avoid the same mistakes of earlier drug wars.

Speeding in America

Speed is nothing new in America. Amphetamines were sold over the counter until the 1950s, and after that, doctors routinely prescribed "mother's little helpers" to increase stamina and even help dieters. After the government cracked down on amphetamines in the '70s, West Coast biker gangs began manufacturing them.

And today, legal amphetamines are prescribed to millions -- including children -- in the form of Ritalin, Adderall and other drugs.

But the use of methamphetamine -- which can be made from common household chemicals and the psuedoephedrine found in over-the-counter cold medicines -- has grown, and the drug has taken on a sinister role in the public's mind.

Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit group calling for drug policy reform, says that sensational stories about "meth babies," "meth mouth" and the wildly addictive properties of the drug are blatant propaganda and fear-mongering.

"The media loves new drug scares," says Nadelmann.

On the Frontlines

But for those fighting meth abuse in cities and towns across the country, the problem is very real.

Laurie Mullen is the director of the Western Area City County Cooperative (WACCO), an organization in west-central Minnesota that facilitates the sharing of information and resources among law enforcement, social service agencies and other government groups.

In the past four years, Mullen says she has seen methamphetamine use explode in the mostly rural towns that WACCO covers. Mullen said social service caseloads, incarceration rates and treatment referrals have gone up significantly in the area since meth became popular.

Mullen says as up to 80 percent of child protective cases in the area are referred from meth-abusing homes, and that domestic violence shelter intakes are up 70 percent, also related to meth.

"I really feel that meth is different than other drugs," Mullen says. Besides what she calls the "psychotic paranoia" it induces in users, she says it's a drug that has crossed age, gender and socioeconomic boundaries.

One of WACCO's programs sends recovering meth addicts into local high schools to talk to kids about the drug's dangers and the progression from casual user to full-blown addict. Mullen says that school officials and parents were initially wary of talking about the drug at all.

"There's such a stigma with meth," she says. "Before it was like pushing a rock uphill. But at this point, everybody's been touched by it. ... It's that jock and academic achiever that's using."

Dangerous Cold Medicine

But state and federal officials are not counting on word-of-mouth from former users to stop meth use. They're trying to stop production at the source by making one of meth's key ingredients -- psuedoephedrine, which is found in over-the-counter cold medicines -- harder to get.

Several states have moved cold medicines containing psuedoephedrine behind the counter. Oregon recently passed a bill that would require people to get a doctor's prescription in order to get medicines like Sudafed.

In September, the U.S. Senate passed its Combat Meth Act, a federal law which would move the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter and limit the amount one person could buy.

The logic behind this move is to cripple smaller meth labs, which produce about 35 percent of meth sold in the country. These home labs are also dangerous -- they are filled with toxic chemicals and can explode or catch fire.

Steve Suo, the Oregonian reporter, says that law enforcement is behind this move, in large part because busting home meth labs eats up the time and resources of local police forces.

Groups like the Drug Policy Alliance argue that measures like these inconvenience the millions of people across the country who use products containing psuedoephedrine for legitimate purposes, like colds and allergies.

Plus, enforcing these restrictions can prove problematic. In June, the federal government conducted "Operation Meth Merchant," in which they arrested 49 convenience store clerks in Georgia for selling cold medicine over the counter.

Most of those arrested were Indian immigrants, some with a limited grasp of English. Not quite the picture of international drug traffickers, they are nonetheless facing up to 20 years in prison.

Interrupting International Flow

But the bigger question is: What about the other 65 percent of methamphetamine making its way into the country?

Suo says that right now the majority of meth is coming from south of the border.

"Mexican meth has flooded into the state in the last year," he said. "Users I've talked to have seen no change in availability."

In his investigative reporting, Suo found that drug cartels in Mexico are importing tons of psuedoephedrine from the United States, and then making meth in "superlabs" there, only to turn around and smuggle it back into the states.

Over the past five years, The Oregonian found that Mexico's imports of cold medicine have jumped from 64 tons to 224 tons -- roughly double the amount the country legitimately needs.

Suo also found that that the bulk of ephedrine and psuedoephedrine is manufactured in only nine factories in the world. During two periods in the 1990s, the government gave the Drug Enforcement Agency more power to examine and tighten the manufacture and sale of chemicals from these factories.

During those years, the rate of crime and addiction related to methamphetamine fell, according to Suo.

"Meth is different than other drugs in that we actually know of policies that interrupt supply," Suo says ."We know what works, so it kind of begs the question: Will anybody do anything about it?"

Learning from the Crack Years

Another bill to combat meth is making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill, called the "Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act," is more far reaching than the Senate bill and does contain provisions that crackdown on both domestic and international trafficking of psuedoephedrine.

But the bill also calls for tougher sentencing for those who make, use and sell meth and provides more money for law enforcement -- provisions that some policy experts and politicians find troubling.

Bill Piper, the director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, says that in many ways, this bill repeats the mistakes of the 1980s "war on crack," when jails filled up with low-level drug offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences.

"Increasing sentencing for non-violent drug offenders does nothing to deter the availability of drugs," Piper says.

Instead, he says throwing these offenders in jail costs more money in the long run and breaks up families.

Another major problem with the bill, says Piper and others, is that it does not provide funding for treatment. One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., has said that he agrees there should be more money for treatment but says that funding should be allocated in a separate bill.

Mullen, who works with WACCO in Minnesota, also believes treatment and education are key. Though she believes cracking down on local meth labs and limiting access to psuedoephedrine are important, local governments have to think about other, more creative, solutions.

"One shortfall right now is that there should be more counties looking at drug courts and treatment rather than incarceration," says Mullen.

Piper says the government seems to have missed many important lessons from fighting past drug wars. "It's disappointing that the House and Senate are missing a key component, and that is treatment," he said.